Fireworks

For years and years the 4th of July was maybe my favorite non-Christmas holiday. A full day of food, friends, and explosions what is there not to like about that. As all things though time shifted that perception of the holiday, and of course 2020 quite literally washed it out. This years 4th I spent recalling a horrible, but now several decades after the fact semi humorous life lesson I witnessed firsthand on the 4rh.

A girlfriend of mine at the time took me to one of her very "yuppy" friends for 4th bonfire party. I am not what one would consider a part of that crowd, yet by virture of my date I was reluctantly accepted in. The night rolled on and we did have a lot of fun, and then the hour of poor reasoning began. The first clue the evening was taking a wrong turn occured when the guys started playing tag with roman candles. As if the concept of rocketing fire balls at one another could ever be a bad thing. Eventually that gave way to bottle rocket russian roulette, and major damage to a very well manicured lawn and shrubbery. The absolute cherry on top was when about midnight our host ... I'll call D to preserve identity ... decided he could hold a bottle rock and set it off. He lit it, he held it, he ignored the pleas and demands he stop, and the bottle rocket did what lit bottle rockets do. In the midst of the bright flash and whizzing sound there was a scream that no man ever wants to have come from his throat. D gathered up some nice burns to his hands, lower legs, and forehead up. And in forehead I mean it burned his eyebrows completely off his face. Some of the burns where second degree serious, luckily none to his face where that bad, but in all it was bad. Not to mention human flesh burnt stinks!

In my age I still sort of chuckle to that story, mostly cause I saw it live, and I knew D to be one of those guys that just made bad choice after bad choice, so him hokding a bottle rocket did not surprise me. Contrast that to Jesus's equivalent of D, this fish smelling guy called Peter. This guy was all over the place, and always jumping in without really considering what he was jumping into until it was ten seconds to late. The whole walk on water thing, or the assult on a Roman ear, and it culminates with a triple roster crow.  Each of these events had to play a role in the final product of who Peter eventually became, The rock upon whom I'll build my church. Jesus never gave up on the potential in a man just because he fell short a few dozen times, he just point him back to the path and sent  him off to try again with his blessings. I am D in so many ways (minus the burns) I am sure we all are. Consider this though, do we focus on the actions of our supposed failures and devalue self -- or like Jesus do we see potential in the heart of the effort. Where would we all be if we could realign our thought to reflect even a portion of what Jesus thought of us? What I really love about Jesus is that because there is the cross with his DNA, there is always another oppuurtunity for you and I to get back on the path and not be roadblocked for life.