Happy 4th!

When I think of July 4th through the years, I think of grilling out and fireworks.  It is always fun to get family together and have an eating and then a firing off of fireworks.  We were blessed with a wonderful neighbor when I was growing up. Charlie, or 'Uncle Charles' as I affectionately called him later, had lost one eye to disease and one eye to a mill accident.  He could see very little. He loved gardening, George Jones music, laying in his swing in late afternoon, and...fireworks. He loved to buy fireworks and let us send them off.  Charlie did not go light on the fireworks.  He would buy so many that before you get done, you are sending off bunches at a time, shooting them at each other, starting small fires, and terrorizing the neighborhood.  We had Roman Candles that we would shoot for the mild at heart.  We had parachute bottle rockets.  All the kids would fight over the parachutes, hang them in their rooms for two days, and then they come up missing.  Mom, what happened to my charred firecracker parachutes?  We had some that even parachuted American flags.  Nothing more patriotic than a firework that shoots off the American flag.  It was always a lot of fun.   The next day we would find them on top of houses, in the neighbors' yards.  Usually in those yards of neighbors that did not like fireworks, did not like kids, did not like much of anything.  It is a wonder that we didn't blow up the whole neighborhood.  Nothing brings a community together and apart at the same time like fireworks. 

This morning we began studying Hebrews ( http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Kings%2015,16;%20Hosea%201;%20Hebrews%201 ).  You have to love Hebrews.  It is a challenging book but it is a bridge builder.  It is there to point the Jew to the real Messiah, Jesus.   What a way to describe Him, Hebrews 1:3- He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.   We know all we need to know about God through Christ.  Not only does He reveal God to us, but He has the whole world in His Hand. 

Before you celebrate today, before the fireworks go off, and the grill fires up, take a few moments to give God praise for Christ, the wonderful radiance of the powerful glory of the magnificient God. 

Have a Happy 4th!