Fountains and Fireworks

Tim and I just returned from a weekend in the beautiful Brandywine Valley, a very historic area along the PA/DE border.  Growing up in Claymont, DE, I spent a lot of time in Chadds Ford, PA.  There’s the Brandywine Battlefield Park that is famous for its role during the Revolutionary War.  My family and friends enjoyed many picnics at this particular park.  Then there’s what used to be Lenape Park, that is now another huge picnic area.  Lenape Park was an amusement park, complete with it’s own wooden roller coaster ride. Very small by today’s standards of roller-coasters, it still took my breath away each time I was brave enough to get on it!

But my fondest memories come from the time I spent at Longwood Gardens, a DuPont estate built in 1921 that has remained much the same today.  The huge conservatory and formal gardens know no equal on the entire planet!  This past weekend we visited Longwood for their summertime show, Fountains and Fireworks.  I could not help but to mentally go back almost 40 years and picture myself here at Longwood when I was sixteen years old.  Every Saturday night during the summer, Longwood hosted a free fountain show that featured their beautiful fountains in various forms and figures, all set to the background of lights and music.  The lawn in front of the fountains was dotted with lawn chairs and blankets.  It was always a very relaxing pleasant event.

My, how this has changed in 40 years!  What used to be free now costs $38.00 per person!  The show consists of not just the lights, music and fountains, but also fireworks.  And the size of the crowd?  What used to be several hundred people, has ballooned in a crowd of 6,100!  Blankets are not allowed  because they take up too much space, so everyone brings their lawn chairs and places them in rows, hours  before the show begins.  The sun finally begins to set and the announcer announces that the show will start in 15 minutes.

Suddenly the music starts, the fountains go up, and the fireworks begin.   You hardly know where to focus because you don’t want to miss the fireworks, but you barely notice the beauty of the fountains.  Finally the fireworks stop for one song and you can focus on the colors and lights of the fountains.  They’re as peaceful as I remember them – magnificant in their power and display.

All in all – a great show.  Each time I visit Longwood, I’m reminded that God has made all things beautiful.  The fountains, the flowers, the fireworks all remind me that we serve a God who loves beautiful things.  Thank you God, for allowing us to enjoy all these things, for we know all things beautiful ultimately come from YOU!