just a firework?

A couple nights ago I saw some fireworks, and I really enjoyed them. I thought about how when I was little I used to be so afraid of them because of the loud noise and the danger; and I thought about how now I love them so much. They're almost magical. They light up the sky with a pretty design and then shimmer away until they're gone.

But I also thought of a shot in Titanic (one of my favorite movies), where the ship is sinking and they shot off some fireworks in attempts to call for help. The camera shows the ship from what must be miles and miles away... and against the ocean and the huge dark night sky, from that relative view, the fireworks look very very small and aren't too noticeable.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lesliecallan/4760558483/in/photostream/
{^this is the idea}

Fireworks are a good image of what out culture likes. Something bright and flashy that seems really great, but in the grand scheme of things is actually small and insignificant. Something that brings momentary pleasure, but just leaves a mess to clean up afterwards.

Katy Perry tries to encourage her listeners (which ends up being a very large percentage of America's population) by telling us that we're fireworks.... just in case we were feeling like plastic bags. Well, as much as I like singing the song, I've never thought to compare myself to a plastic bag, and I'm never really inspired by the fact that Katy Perry thinks everyone is a firework.

I prefer the lyrics from a song by Audrey Assad, which say, "For love of You, I'm a sky on fire." The sky is the biggest thing I've ever seen (and incidentally, it's one of my favorite things in the world), so a sky on fire would be an incredibly epic thing, to say the least. And that's what I wanna be for God... that's how big I wanna display my love for Him, because of His love for me.

So let's not be fireworks with no purpose except to "show them what we're worth"... let's be skies on fire for the love of our Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ.