I’m a real “Yankee Doodle Dandy born on the 4th of July!!” Yep, when the fireworks went off as a child I thought they were just for me! Having a birthday on this day has always been fantastic. Everyone is off work, having a picnic, and yes… then there’s the fireworks!
My mom said she remembers waking up in the hospital with the windows open hearing a light rain and the sound of bands warming up as they began to get in line outside for the annual 4th of July parade down Main street. She wanted to march with them to celebrate that she had just given birth to a girl having had 2 boys already. I had been their “accident,” however. That unplanned birth. You see God had His perfect plan though. My mom that day didn’t know that she would walk through the journey of the death of a child, my older brother, 5 years later. He was the price of my father’s salvation. See God was already was restoring to her a new child, an extra child, that was unplanned for with my birth.
He’s doing the same for you. Trust His unmerited Grace. As you light those sparkler’s and watch the fireworks this Fourth of July, celebrate His perfect plan that He is working out in the midst of the pain, misery, suffering, and unpredictability of this life on earth. Celebrate Jesus and His Perfect Plan for you.
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
