Happy 4th of July!!! Happy Birthday America!!!
Ever since I was a kid, I have always loved the 4th of July…I mean the hot dogs, soda pop, hamburgers, day at the beach, were okay but I just loved blowing things up…I found that I could not wait until it got night, and the fireworks show would begin. From that very first shell that would go up and explode and paint the night sky and fill the heavens with the beautiful display of colors, and loud explosions…I usually would say oooh when that first one went up and the next one, I would be leading the crowd around me saying aaah.
Even today, as I watched the sun go down, I found myself getting more and more excited, eagerly awaiting the first round get fired into the night sky. Again, I did my ooohs and aaahs, as the show when on I grew impatient awaiting for the final 5 minutes when the sky would be lite up in an array of colors busting into the night and the exploding shells going off…man it was great.
When I lived in Tennessee and fireworks were legal to buy and send up into the night, I will never forget the pure joy of lighting the fuse to my first rocket…man was I pumped, as the shell took off and sailed into the sky I watched as the fuse burnt out and the shell fell to the ground and broke open failing to go off. Man, what a waste of $5 bucks I thought, then the next one was carefully lit and off she went and when she went off man that was so cool when the lights went out and I looked down to light another one the explosion went off above me…I peed my pants as I didn’t expect it…man that was so awesome.
I remember the year I came back home to visit my parents and we went to the parade then gathered in the field next to the Catholic church were the fire department ran the show. The little town of Sauk Village, Illinois usually had an hour show of fireworks but not this particular year, they lit the wrong fuse and the whole show went off and it was over in about a minute and a half. Man, it was so great!
As I think about all that I am thankful for, that I can live anywhere I want to…in the greatest country in the whole wide earth. Where I have so many freedoms to speak my mind, have a voice in who gets elected, be able to have a faith in God and be able to worship where I please, the right to gather as a people without the fear of being arrested to travel free without being stopped crossing a state boundary, to have the type of career that I want and the freedom to work where I chose to. There are so many more things about this country that a lot of us take for granted.
Today, I thought too, about how so many of us are like the fire works…we are beautiful and God loves us and sometimes I think even He says oooh and aaah as He watches us go through life.
He gives us free will to choose to love others and to do for others. I trust that as we are around each other going through life that we continue to do the kinds of things that make God say oooh and aaah as He watches us grow as individuals and how we treat others.
May we too, learn to see the beauty in the people of many colors who are different from us in our belief systems. I trust that as you watch the people grow that you love that, you too, will even say, as you watch them, that they give you an oooh and aaah moment. For the many people I call my friends, thanks for giving me those oooh and aaah moments.