My phone had been receiving notifications that a severe winter storm was on its way to our corner of the Northwest. The signs were obvious: below freezing temperatures, frozen water in a bucket at church in the furnace room, people’s pipes breaking, the gathering of firewood (and long-burning logs), defrosting the truck for twenty minutes in the mornings, pets hesitant to go outside, and charred dumpsters in the heart of the city, the remains of desperate attempts for heat by those without homes.
A few weeks ago, our heating system broke in our house, and we knew that a hefty repair was in our future. It was still mild enough outside that we just put a few logs in the fireplace and we were sufficiently warmed in the evenings, gathering in our family room “bear den”. But the temperatures soon grew more frigid outside and our house got extremely cold. Thankfully, a gas fireplace in the basement helped to keep temps between 58-61 degrees Fahrenheit.
We’ve been baking a lot and leaving the oven door open to cool and maximize our use of the heat produced, and enjoying the baked goods produced from the heat! We increased our creativity in gathering fuel to burn including our two crispy Christmas trees from the forest, old school workbooks, extra wooden shingles we found in a box in our shed (from the previous owner), and dried apple branches from our tree, besides the costly grocery store firewood. A friend dropped off several large tree stumps for our sons to chop, and we are well supplied to keep the home fires burning!
When the temperatures dropped this past weekend, and frost began to accumulate on the inside of our windows, we bought a couple more hot water bottles for sleeping, an electric heating pad, doubled up on socks, and began to wear our winter coats and scarves around the house. The new heating unit arrived on the first day of the winter storm and workers faithfully stayed all day until midnight working. Amidst the falling of snow, our home was being restored, and we are once again enjoying the gift of a warm home!
One thing I’ve noticed is that our whole family gathers in our little family room and kitchen where its the warmest, where they read, play video games, study for their final exams, drink tea (and coffee), and generally entertain each other with the tools of logic they have eloquently gained this past year!
I love listening to my dad’s stories of growing up on the dairy farm in southern British Columbia. There were some winters that were so cold, that in the night, they’d go to sleep in their upstairs room and set out a cup of water. Over night, it would freeze solid. But they stayed warm enough in their house and in the morning, their mom would start up the wood stove in the basement. There was a hole cut into the floor where the heat would rise from the basement to the main level of the house… alas, central heating! And everyone would gather around the heat and light, and there, life was enjoyed, stories were shared, prayers were prayed, and knowing my aunts and uncles I’m sure many songs were sung… together.
That’s what heat and light do, they gather us in to safety, to survival, to life. The light chases the darkness away. The heat repels the deathly cold. Heat and light invite us to live, and not in isolation, but together. This is what the Word of God does.
God’s Word is a light to our path to help us see Reality, what is real and true. God’s Word gathers people together to feed our sin-sick souls, to nourish and give us strength for the daily friction of living in a broken world. We have the opportunity and responsibility, as born-again Christians, to share God’s Word with others, to bring others to the feast of God’s Word, the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, so that they too can gather with us around the life-giving warmth and light of Christ’s love, a fire that is never extinguished, but gives light and life to all who draw near.
I was reminded of this life-giving fire this past Sunday during the sermon. My husband is preaching through the book of the Acts of the Apostles. God came in the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit sent from King Jesus ten days after Jesus ascended bodily into Heaven and sat down on His throne to rule the nations and remake the world. As His people scattered among many nations pilgrimaged and gathered at the temple for the Feast of Pentecost, a harvest feast, the Holy Spirit descended and came upon the people like little flames of fire.
The tongues of fire were symbolic of the temple sacrificial system, but instead of offering the required animals on the altar, God’s people were becoming “living sacrifices” set on fire by the Holy Spirit, and being purified by the refining fire of the Holy Spirit. The people of God are now the living temple of His Spirit and we are the living sacrifices, but the provision and all the work is God’s work alone. And this is what people are drawn to, the light which comes not from us, but from God, the Creator and Giver of Light, the One who keeps the Light shining and the One to whom every knee will bow on earth and in Heaven. All nations will come to this Light and the world is being transformed by Jesus. He is the One who calls the City on a Hill into being and the light is going forth into all the world.
Light has a source and people are drawn to the source to gather and live. Jesus alone is the Light and those who come to him are filled with His Light to be reflectors of that Light which will transform the world.
For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”
has shone in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:5-7
