God's Fireworks? Hmmmm...

Noah wanted to lie on the grass and look up at the fireworks but the ground was still a little wet. Just three hours earlier, rain and hail pelted the ground, forcing our family and the Strothers to run for cover in the car. Like most storms in Colorado, the black clouds passed within an hour. The sky was now a canvas of black and we were eager to see the fireworks’ artists display their skill with explosions of color.

“Remember when we saw those fireworks while we were laying down, Mom?”

I knew what he was talking about. Four years earlier, we had visited John’s mother in Delaware and were treated to a small town Fourth of July celebration that turned out to rival any big city’s festivities. The fireworks show was huge and wonderful and Noah and I lay on a park’s grass and stared up at the joy bursting in lights.

This year we travelled to Estes Park, Colorado to meet our friends Mary Carole and Tim Strother and enjoy the holiday. We ate a picnic of chicken and bananas and pretzels and took cover when it hailed. Then we took our lawn chairs out to the grass near Lake Estes and awaited.

It began with reds and greens in the shape of flowers appearing with a blast and disappearing just as quickly. Clouds of silver lights followed. My favorite was the waterfalls made from golden twinkling lights cascading down until they vanished.

About midway through the thirty-minute show, a thought came to me. God’s displays of fireworks will be amazing.

Sometimes I ponder what heaven will be like. I know the ultimate joy will to be in the face to face presence of God. I believe the emotion of being with Him will be incomparable to anything we’ve experienced on earth. Sort of like remembering my happiest moments in life and quadrupling them. The joy will be mixed with humility and gratitude and complete awe. That will be the ultimate.

But I also think that the Creator of the Universe, the One who instilled the creativity in Da Vinci and Mozart and Edison and that guy on TV who is obsessed with creating the perfect vacuum cleaner, this God will have created surprises for us that will thrill. When I think of God’s fireworks, I think of a black night with stars exploding and forming designs and colors we haven’t witnessed yet. Every time a star will dazzle us, it will sound beautiful. I think of that movie “City of Angels” and how the angels would gather at sunrise to watch the sun come up. Their faces would glow as they listened to glorious music that only they could hear.

When I envision the fireworks of God, I also see how God’s power can give us the experience of not only enjoying the stars dance, but I imagine that we can be part of the show, too.

“Wanna ride a star, Robbie?” He asks me and the awe of His love, complete for all of us and yet individual for me overwhelms.

“Absolutely.”

He shows me how to hang on to a star and ride it. The exhilaration and fun of moving with light makes me laugh and scream with pleasure. And then it explodes. I am safely whisked away on a piece of the star, shooting through the universe.

I imagine it will be thrilling and joyful. But I can only define it using the mind I have now. To be given a new body and an new awareness of His presence is beyond what I can create in the limits of my mind’s eye.

The Creator has no limits.

“I don’t care if it’s wet, I’m laying down.” My eleven-year-old boy flops down on the grass and looks up to enjoy the rest of the display.

I smile and imagine him riding a comet with Jesus, laughing from the pit of all of who he is and all he will be.

That will truly be an independence day.