Fire

Fire is an amazing thing. Essentially, the bi-products of a reaction when certain materials reach a particular temperature in our atmosphere. Heat and light seen as dancing liquid forms.

Fire is extremely captivating. I can sit and watch a fire for hours on end. Until it dies out. And I've been known to do this with a lot of other people. And we don't say anything while we watch the fire. We just stare into its red golden hue and become transfixed on the slowly changing composition of what it is we are burning.

Fire is change. It is an object reacting via temperature in our atmosphere and becoming something completely different molecularly. Well, wood, for instance, is mostly hydrocarbons. (Now I'm venturing into waters I know little about. I'm not much of a chemist). We are too, I am told. But when wood combusts and burns, those molecules are separated and unite with oxygen in our atmosphere to produce Carbon Dioxide CO2 (smoke) and Carbon - C (ash). Well, I don't really know what ash is made up of but I'm led to believe it's mostly carbon. I wonder if that has something to do with why we like to watch a fire burning: because it is a process of change that fascinates us.

Fire is dangerous. Starting one intentionally in the wrong place is a serious crime in most places. People once used fire to execute people for horrible crimes, or just to be terribly cruel. It is, in my opinion, one of the, if not the most, cruel form of death.

Fire is essential! The sun is something like a giant fireball that feeds our planet the warmth, vitamin D and energy we need to survive. Without the ability to make fire, most people would/would have perished during the colder months of the year.

Fire destroys. Like I've said above, fire can easily be used to destroy that which we've built or made. Fire is analogous with a life without God and eternal punishment: "It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire." Matthew 18:8

Fire is used to refine objects to their pure state. God Himself is described as fire-like: "... for our God is a consuming fire." Hebrews 12:29, "By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgement and destruction of ungodly men." 2Peter 3:7, "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare." 2Peter 3:10, "If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire willtest the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames." 1 Corinthians 3:12-15.

God is a fire of refinement. It seems to be His great desire to mold us into loving, selfless, goldy people and He is excellent at it.

What an amazing thing fire is. I'm sitting here in my living room, writing to you and enjoying the warmth of my own fireplace with a fire going. I love the smell of wood smoke. It changes the atmosphere in a room or even outside. It is something to focus on. It creates a place of comfort and safety. It is something to be thankful for. It is beautifully dangerous. We have even taken the essentially beneficial qualities of fire (light and heat) and reproduce them for our own effecient benefit. And yet in doing so, I feel you lose something of the great mystery and fascination that comes with enjoying the blaze of a hot fire on the hearth.