Duraflame

Tonight was a great night!. We picked up two boxes of Thanksgiving dinners from church and delivered them to some families we knew who really could use them. On the way home from Hastings we saw several Christmas displays and the kids loved the sight of them. Hazel asked me where our Christmas lights were and said we should hang some which I with the usual groan said "I think they are in the garage somewhere". She also mentioned how neat a fire might be and I said "yes it would be cool,the girls are getting to the age where they might really appreciate it". We got home and I just decided to go to the garage and dig out the Christmas lights. I even started hanging a few on our nice new chain link fence. Iris and Lily were instantly excited and the next thing I knew Hazel was improving what I started and had a nice display of lights in the front yard. I found a old metal whatever the heck you call it from the garden and brought it to the back yard and threw some sticks and paper into it and the next thing you know we had a nice little fire started. The kids were so excited! They hunted for sticks and leaves and whatever to add to the fire and after 20 minutes it was burning really nicely without too much smoke. This led to a nice little family time eating grilled cheese sandwiches around the campfire. Wow! no T.V. or computer or cell phone!. Just Hazel and I and Iris and Lily sitting around a fire.
Hazel was the first to bail out on us and go into the house. I sat in my chair by the fire admiring my handiwork and just watched the fire burn. Iris and Lily would come around once in awhile with some leaves and twigs to give me and watch me throw them on the fire to get a immediate burst of flame. This really excited them and gave them immediate satisfaction. I was more entertained by the bright orange and red larger pieces of wood burning toward the bottom which really created the heat and made the fire a success. This baby was going to burn for hours. After Iris and Lily went into the house I was left sitting alone with my amazing fire and my thoughts. Hmmm sounds like a deep thoughts with Dan kind of moment.
I started thinking about churches. There are churches that start with a little kindling and are exciting and seem to fade out. There are churches that seem to be smoldering logs that once were creating alot of heat but now are just lying there needing somebody to poke them with a poker and add some new wood to revitalize them. There are probably even one or two churches that are rip roaring fires and warming up the entire 17 mile radius around them. The kind their pastors write books about and have small groups study their ways. Maybe just maybe. Hopefully there are enough logs in the fire to sustain them through the long cold night. I started thinking about our church. There are some great red hot burning logs that keep the heat generating. There are periodic leaves and kindle that get thrown onto the fire and create a burst of fire that excites the neighborhood. There are some green fresh wood that needs to mature spiritually and realise its importance to a great fire. There is also some dead wood that either needs a spark from some new flames to reignite their flame or will just sit idly bye happy being dead embers. Pray for the dead embers. There are also a select few who are happy being great firewood but never want to burn. Too selfish or too weak in their faith to realise that the only real good firewood is wood that is burning, but would rather be an impressive chord of wood sitting in the backyard but never used. Kind of like a Duraflame log still in the wrapper.