Fireplace Grate with fire burning
In the cold of a winter’s evening when the air is clear and my vision is sharp I can smell it, a wood burning fire, the smoke drifting from a nearby chimney. All I can do is inhale that smell, it takes me back to being a 10 year old girl running home from Cookie’s house in the winter time for dinner. That smell it embraces me and fills me with wonderment and somehow I am there again in my childhood.
We have a gas burning fireplace in our house but it is not the same, when you use a key to turn on the fire! We visited my sister in law over the Christmas weekend and they had a fire burning in their fire place. Like a moth to a flame I was drawn to it, smelling the sweet scent and warming myself by it for at least an hour.
I have always loved the smell of a fire and to watch the flames dance upon the wood; it is entrancing to my soul. There is something so free and uninhibited about fire, it has no emotion or goal, but the air gives it life and the more air you feed it the more it burns. It cannot grow and will literally fade if it is not feed the air that it needs to burn.
We too are like that fire in our souls, in our innermost thoughts, in our visions of becoming all that we can become. But we hold ourselves back more times than not. In reality we feel we must not live completely free or uninhibited; which is true in many aspects we must live without interfering with the rights of others. However, there are parts of us that can be free like those flames that lap against the wood, spark and then rise into smoke. If we let the air about us feed us we can breathe it in and release our truest emotions and love to others. We have been taught all our lives to not talk about certain issues with others, religion and God being one of them. How much would it truly hurt to mention His name to others that we believe, not to push God on anyone, not shove God in their face, not to convert others but just to be ok with saying God is part of our lives in a non invasive way, through acts of kindness, looks of care and words of friendship.
God gave us the words to praise Him, the arms to embrace others, the heart to love those around us and His presence to let us be free. God is the air that feeds our flame and freedom. Feel God’s presence, let it take you back to the innocence of your childhood before you had to restrain your thoughts and beliefs, let God’s presence give you the ability to see clearly in the winter evenings, the smoke that rises from others homes, let God’s presence enfold you in the sweet smell of the embers. Let God be the air that sets your spirit free, that fans your fire to be the person He created YOU to become this winter’s day.
