I was drawn out of bed by booms and color from across the Hudson. It was Flag Day and there was a great display of fireworks.
But in the foreground in my backyard was an even greater celebration. It was mating season. Don’t get nervous, it was fireflies. What a show they put on! The fireworks, as fantastic as they were, literally faded into the background. I couldn’t take my eyes off the ‘mates.’
This juxtaposition of the temporal and eternal is a recurring theme in my life. My former commute along the Delaware River in New Jersey was a great case in point. If I looked to my right, the Delaware River shouted for my attention with its natural beauty and rich history. This was the exact spot where Washington spurned Christmas presents in favor of surprising hungover Hessians, and just as importantly, the place where I tubed down it, minus the tricorn hat.
If I looked to my left, I would see splendid Colonial homes perched upon the hills overlooking the Delaware. It seemed to me that there is always a choice between man-made creations like houses and God-made wonders like the Delaware River.
Some might say you can have both. Sitting on the porch overlooking the Delaware, one could say they have the best of both worlds. But for how long?
And I did, in fact, watch both the fireflies and the fireworks simultaneously. Yet, if I had to choose, the fireflies seem infinitely more spectacular.
Today, I write this from a porch perched high above another historic river, the Hudson. While I don’t want to live in a tent and I did enjoy the lightning bugs from the comforts of my bug-less bedroom, I have to say that houses are for here and lightning bugs are for the hereafter: “The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.” Revelation 21:23
PHOTO: The Hudson River sits under a beautiful, but man-made, bridge.
noreputationcommunications 