The Father’s Fireworks

By Al Perrotta Published on July 3, 2017

When you grow up near Washington, D.C. and get to enjoy July 4th festivities on the National Mall, other firework shows tend not to impress. I mean, what can beat the majestic sight of exploding shells against the backdrop of the Washington Monument, as a military orchestra blasts patriotic tunes from the lawn of the U.S. Capitol? 

Perhaps I should say who can beat. 

One Independence Day during my college years we decided not to do The Mall. Instead, we hung out at a house on the Chesapeake Bay, then headed up to the Naval Academy in Annapolis for their fireworks show. 

What we got was the most amazing fireworks show ever.

Right as the Annapolis show got underway, a monster electrical storm hit the area. Grow up in the Mid-Atlantic region and you know thunderstorms, you know lightning. This was nothing like anything I’d seen before or since. Every exploding, sparkling firework was met with a swarm of bolts, many connected horizontally. A fierce fishnet of lightning. And every “pow” from the fireworks was met with a teeth-jarring “kaboom” from the heavens.   

It was as if God was showing off. “Let me show you how it’s done!” The crowd responded, “oohing!” and “aahing!” and cheering the stormy display. 

God’s Power Over This Nation

Looking back now, I see a message for the nation. Each July 4th we set off fireworks to celebrate our Independence Day, as we rightfully should. Yet the lightning and thunder remind us that as much as we can do with our hands, it is nothing compared to His hand. It was by our Creator that this nation came to be created. 

John Adams understood this. Though he predicted July 2nd would be the day we would celebrate, he said Independence Day ought to be commemorated “as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty.” 

It is by His power that we grew powerful, and it’s by His grace we continue despite growing prideful; so prideful we not only turn from God, we insist He have no part in our public life and celebrations. 

Not coincidentally, we are enduring a hard time in America. We have set upon each other with a division and violence not seen since the Civil War. Even our ballfields have become a battlefield. Similarly, Adams was surrounded by the bloodshed and struggle of the Revolution. “Yet,” he said, “through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory.”

Light and Glory

This nation is not perfect. Blocks from where we watched the miraculous fireworks display, humans were once sold as slaves. The name “Chesapeake” itself reminds us of a people forced from their lands. Further up the Bay is Baltimore, still smoldering from riots. Head south down Rt. 50 you find a Swamp. No, this nation is not perfect.

However, it has thrived these 241 years because it grounded itself in the One who is perfect. It proclaimed for the world to hear the revolutionary revelation that we have been endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Our rights come not from kings but the King. How many hundreds of millions have been set free as a result? 

It is a staggering truth once “self-evident,” but now so ingrained as to be invisible. (Or when made visible, mocked.)

Yet what if we openly turn toward the Light? What if we sing at the top of our lungs and from the bottom of our hearts, “Glory, Glory, Hallelujah”? How will our voices echo across the land? How desperate are those voices needed today?

In recent days, the White House issued stern warnings to Syria over a potential chemical attack. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster warned of the “immediate” threat from North Korea. 

It occurs to me that those who were Naval Academy cadets that special 4th of July would be today’s admirals and other top brass. And those who just graduated from Annapolis might well be sailing toward those troubled spots at this moment.

When they look to the July 4th sky, I pray they look beyond the man-made fireworks to the One who makes that sky roar and pour. That they, like our Founders, will find both strength and peace in the presence and purpose of our Creator. 

And amid the gloom may we all be lit by His “Rays of ravishing Light and Glory.”

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