Take Me to the Mardi Gras

My An Arkie's Faith column from the February 23, 2022, issue of The Polk County Pulse. 

The road stretched out ahead as I headed south towards Louisiana. Paul Simon’s voice filled the car as the scenery flew by my window. “Come on, take me to the Mardi Gras, where the people sing and play. Where the dancing is elite, and there’s music in the street both night and day.” As the song nears the end, the legendary Onward Brass Band of New Orleans takes over, and I can almost feel the streets of New Orleans. I was heading south to visit family and experience a Mardi Gras parade. 

People who live outside Louisiana and have never experienced Mardi Gras primarily perceive it as a drunken holiday filled with debauchery. But contrary to public perception, Mardi Gras is primarily a family, kid-friendly celebration. Mardi Gras New Orleans advises, “The only area that we don’t recommend taking kids during Mardi Gras is the French Quarter.” Almost all of the parades are family-friendly. Families set up along the parade routes to picnic, play games, and watch the parades pass. Throws often include toys, stuffed animals, beads, and more that kids have the opportunity to catch.  

I wasn’t going all the way to New Orleans. My destination was Shreveport. Our group from Arkansas and Missouri met our family from Louisiana at the Krewe of Centaur parade in Shreveport. My son-in-law’s family owns a building on Barksdale Highway along the parade route, so we had an excellent place to park, tailgate, and watch the parade. It was a fantastic location to see the family-friendly parade.

Many floats passed by, with participants throwing gifts out into the crowd. Over 11,000 people lined the streets waving their hands in the air and yelling, “throw me something.” Participants on the floats threw traditional Mardi Gras throws such as beads, doubloons, and plastic cups. The Krewe of Centaur is famous for unusual throws. Because it is a family-friendly parade, throws also included candy, frisbees, mini-footballs, toys, superballs, and a wide assortment of stuffed animals. My young nephew caught a toy sword and a hula hoop. My granddaughter caught several toys, including a stuffed animal. 

The Krewe of Centaur was organized in 1991. The Krewe focuses on building a better community and pursuing good family fun. The Krewe of Centaur Mardi Gras Parade has grown over the years to become one of the largest parades in the Ark-La-Tex. Since the first parade over thirty years ago, the Krewe of Centaur parade has continued to be a family parade sticking to its original mission, a family-friendly Mardi Gras parade for the people of Shreveport. 

It is incredible to see how excited people get about the possibility of catching some plastic beads or other trinkets. Everyone, including me, is swept up in the idea of being the one to get that unique item. Everywhere you look, there are kids on their parent’s shoulders, giving them a chance to catch beads and toys. Participants on the floats often single out kids in the crowd to provide them with a special gift. The kids in our group had a great time.

As I put a large bag of “treasures” in the car when the parade was over, I thought about how everyone at the Mardi Gras parade clamored for these plastic items that had little actual value. I thought about how I wished people were that excited about the gift of God’s grace. Romans 3:24 (NIRV) tells us, “the free gift of God’s grace makes us right with him. Christ Jesus paid the price to set us free.”

The Bible is clear that God’s grace is a gift. Why don’t more people accept the gift? If you were to ask one hundred random people, “how do you get to heaven?” you would hear a lot of different answers. You would hear things like, “try to be good and do your best,” or “work hard at being a good moral person,” or “do more good things in life than you do bad things.” All of these ideas are based on our abilities and actions. They are not based on the idea of a gift. When people don’t feel the need for the gift, They don’t see any reason to accept the gift of God’s grace. Many religious people fall into this way of thinking. They feel that they can do it themselves and don’t need a gift.

The Bible is very plain in Romans 5:16 (NLT) “And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins.” The Bible is also clear that our efforts can only lead to condemnation. Isaiah 64:6 (NIV) tells us that, “all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” We need to understand that we can’t be righteous apart from the gift of God.

Not only do we not have the ability to be righteous, but we are also under a heavy penalty. Romans 3:23 (KJV) says, “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” And Romans 6:23 (KJV) adds, “for the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Every person on the earth is under the penalty of death. But thankfully, there is hope because of Jesus Christ. The book of Acts tells the story of the Philippian jailer. The jailer asked Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And Paul and Silas answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” Acts 16:30,31 (NKJV)

Gentle Reader, we don’t need the beads and baubles of a Mardi Gras parade, but we all need the gift of grace. We all need to have the penalty paid for our sins. We need the gift of God, eternal life. Don’t be too proud to accept the gift. Don’t think you are good enough on your own. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8 (NRSV)