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Science Fair Volcano

Our middle school used to hold a science fair every year. The gym would be turned into a maze of projects where students made radios out of potatoes or demonstrated how two magnets repel each other, and they explained it all on three-sided poster boards. If your science fair was like mine, every other table featured a paper mache volcano. 

No matter how many kids submitted that project, we were amazed to watch each one, as the vinegar was poured in and added to the baking soda, and then the eruption came. It is a simple science experiment about chemical reactions, but it provides a great visual effect.

Did you know this science fair project appears in the Bible? While there is no mention of the paper mache, the active ingredients in the fake lava are found in Proverbs 25:20. That verse says, "Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, and like vinegar to soda." 

Taking off a garment on a cold day portrays forcibly stripping someone else of their coat when it is freezing. You see someone shivering, and you grab their jacket and begin to remove it from them. That would make a bad situation worse. 

Solomon compared that action to the uniting of vinegar and baking soda; it causes an eruption. 

Taking off a garment and making a volcano are like singing a song to a heavy heart. Someone with a heavy heart is someone who is sad, a person that is going through some type of hardship. Singing a song refers to someone who is the opposite, one who is in a good mood. The songs they are singing are happy tunes, but that is not what the one with the heavy heart wants to hear. 

As Christians we need to be encouragers who help cheer people up, but that doesn't mean we should be insensitive. When people around us are struggling, they don't need us to sing our songs; sometimes they just need us to be there. We might try to fix people's problems by reciting platitudes: 

"Everything happens for a reason." 

"This too shall pass." 

"God doesn't give us more than we can bear."

These words are like ripping of their parka in winter, or mixing baking soda and vinegar. It doesn't help, and only makes them feel worse. They aren't looking to you to fix their problems with your words, just to show them love and be there for them. 




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