Fire needs three things to burn: air, fuel and heat. When you build a fire you have the air surrounding you, fuel usually in the form of paper and wood, and matches. For me, building a fire in the wood stove is a pretty easy process. I grab kindling and wood from the piles I have, pick up a piece of newspaper and strike a match.
The three components of a fire remind me of the Trinity. Its actually a pretty good analogy. Our God is a Triune God. He's not just Father, or Son or even Holy Spirit. Just like you can never have a fire if you don't have each part, God is all three and it takes each aspect to show us the One True God.
For fun I have matched up the three parts of a fire with the three parts of the Trinity.Its easy to align the Holy Spirit with fuel...The Holy Spirit is the dunamis, the power to live the walk we are called to. I have a much harder time with Jesus and the Father. I can compare Jesus with heat for He is the one who has made it possible to come into relationship with God just like I associate the match with the thing that starts the fire. Jesus' death and resurrection lit the flame of God fire in my life. So that leaves the Father as air... Air provides the right environment for fire to burn. A match put to wood in a vacumn would not light. God's perfect love, Jesus' spark and the Holy's Spirit's fuel. That's one way to see it. Even as I write this, though, I can sense that my associations are imperfect. I can see each person of the trinity in a different role too. Perhaps that is why the Trinity is such a mystery to us...Distinct features or flavors to each part, yet each such an integral part of the other so that they can't really be divided. Even so, a fire, when is is burning can not at that moment be divided into its three parts or it would cease being a fire.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
It Only Takes a Spark
Yesterday at the preschool we had a fireman come and visit with the kids. He asked them, "Is fire good or bad?" Some children said good and some said it was bad. His answer was that it is both. Fire gives us heat to cook our food and and warm us up . It can also provide us with light and protect us from wild animals. But if a fire is burning our clothes or our house, it's bad. Fire is dangerous and must be handled with respect and care.
Scripture contains numerous references connecting God and fire. The first one that pops into my mind is the verse from Hebrews 12: 29--"Our God is a consuming fire" My bible had a cross reference from Hebrews to Exodus 24:17 where it talked about the glory of the Lord resting upon Mt Sinai ."The glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel." I also think about how the Children of Israel were commanded to keep a lamp burning continually in the temple. These and other verses give me confidence that fire is important symbolically and / or metaphorically to God, as well as a physical gift He has given us.
As i explore and try to describe what I have learned from and about fires I know that God has a lot more to reveal to me in the process of writing them down. Thanks for joining me on this journey.
Scripture contains numerous references connecting God and fire. The first one that pops into my mind is the verse from Hebrews 12: 29--"Our God is a consuming fire" My bible had a cross reference from Hebrews to Exodus 24:17 where it talked about the glory of the Lord resting upon Mt Sinai ."The glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel." I also think about how the Children of Israel were commanded to keep a lamp burning continually in the temple. These and other verses give me confidence that fire is important symbolically and / or metaphorically to God, as well as a physical gift He has given us.
As i explore and try to describe what I have learned from and about fires I know that God has a lot more to reveal to me in the process of writing them down. Thanks for joining me on this journey.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Fire
I love fires. Like many people, I am constantly interested in and attracted to fires. Not sure why we humans have such a response to them, but when I watch a fire I think about a lot of things.
We use the wood stove as our primary heat source during the cold season, any where from September to May. It does a good job of heating the great room(kitchen, dining, living, den) and getting it warm and toasty. It draws us together, for its much nicer to be out near the fire than tucked away in a cold bedroom. The dog has staked out his spot too. He loves to be right smack dab in front of the wood stove. He will eschew his dog bed to lie down on the bare wood floor next to the fire.
A steadily burning fire is attractive in many ways. For one, it's visually appealing--I can sit and watch the flames dancing up and around a piece of wood for a long time. A couple of nights ago I watched a fire where the flames burned red and orange and then died down and a wave of blue flame rose up at the back of the stove for just an instant and then the basic red and orange flames were back. It was unusual and beautiful and it continued in that manner for while. I don't know how long, I had to stop watching and go do something else.
God used a fire to attract Moses in the desert, a beautiful and unusual fire, an eternal flame, for the bush burned, but was not consumed.Once he had Moses' attention, then He spoke to him. And God speaks through fires to me too. They are a constant parable to me. I have been building fires in my wood stove or my back yard for the last 13 years and they almost always speak to me about relationships--personal or communal.
That night as I sat on my knees and watched the shifting flame, that's when I knew... I had my next topic. I have felt dry as far as topics for a while, but now I am going write about fires and what they tell me.
We use the wood stove as our primary heat source during the cold season, any where from September to May. It does a good job of heating the great room(kitchen, dining, living, den) and getting it warm and toasty. It draws us together, for its much nicer to be out near the fire than tucked away in a cold bedroom. The dog has staked out his spot too. He loves to be right smack dab in front of the wood stove. He will eschew his dog bed to lie down on the bare wood floor next to the fire.
A steadily burning fire is attractive in many ways. For one, it's visually appealing--I can sit and watch the flames dancing up and around a piece of wood for a long time. A couple of nights ago I watched a fire where the flames burned red and orange and then died down and a wave of blue flame rose up at the back of the stove for just an instant and then the basic red and orange flames were back. It was unusual and beautiful and it continued in that manner for while. I don't know how long, I had to stop watching and go do something else.
God used a fire to attract Moses in the desert, a beautiful and unusual fire, an eternal flame, for the bush burned, but was not consumed.Once he had Moses' attention, then He spoke to him. And God speaks through fires to me too. They are a constant parable to me. I have been building fires in my wood stove or my back yard for the last 13 years and they almost always speak to me about relationships--personal or communal.
That night as I sat on my knees and watched the shifting flame, that's when I knew... I had my next topic. I have felt dry as far as topics for a while, but now I am going write about fires and what they tell me.
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