the great fire

Normality's slowly returned!

The schools are all back and so I was in at the Primary School first thing.

I'd checked before I went to see that the thing was on - first week back and all that. It's good to have it all return to normal in this way and have the chance to be among the children once again.

The value for the first month of the year is 'optimism'. And given that the whole of the school was in, I thought it pretty optimistic of the head to think that what he said would be intelligible to all the children there! But he's such a gentle manner that I think he gets away with it.

He asked me to lead the prayer at the close. It was good to have that opportunity. Like seeking the blessing of God upon the whole school gathered there, right at the start of the year.

It felt like the Lord had given that chance and meant it to be taken as a token of his purpose for the school troughout the coming months.

Usually when the half-hour assembly's over I would simply come away. But leaving the hall I always pass the door of one of the P5 classes.

So I put my head in the door to say 'hello'. And the teacher ushered me in. It was just like she felt I belonged with the class. And she asked if I'd time to stay for a moment or two.

Which I did, of course. I wasn't going to pass on an invitation like that!

The children were doing a short little play. Just reading the parts from a book at this stage. The play was about the great fire of London way back in the 1600s.

I was struck by the way the Lord had sort of brought me in to listen to the telling of this story from the past. The great fire. And the way that London then was built with so much wood and all the houses just so very close to one another. It made the whole place thoroughly inflammable.

And so the fire just spread. With frightening rapidity. And over such an area as well.

It was strange being asked to come in like that. Almost like the Lord had brought me in to hear this fresh re-telling of a major bit of history from our lands.

As if it was a picture that he wanted me to have. The fire of the Spirit of God. And how that fire can spread.

Combustible and close.

That's all he needs in us. Our lives so lived they're able to be set ablaze with just one spark from God's great Holy Spirit. And lived in such relational proximity to each other that the fire can then just spread.

It was like a simple picture, as I say, which God was keen to give me at the outset of a year. The great fire of the Spirit of God engulfing all our life. May it be so, Lord!

There was fire again in the afternoon. A rather different sort of fire. A cremation. But these times, too, can often be occasions when a spark from the Spirit of God is released.

And who knows how combustible the hearts of those who're present there may be.

I hadn't ever met the woman who had died. So it was, again, a case of speaking 'blind'. Leaving it up to the Spirit of God to take my words and make them his and use them as firelighters in the hearts of those who heard.

The family found some comfort in the service that was held. They felt it was quite personal.

Which is always a comfort to me. The Lord is a personal God, with a care and concern for each of us here on this earth.

He knows us all. And my prayer is always that the words I speak will indicate as much. When I myself have plainly never met the person who has died - and yet my words suggest I know her pretty well - it sometimes starts to dawn on folk that maybe it's the Lord who really knew her and that he has given me his word.

A spark of recognition that there's something more than just a human minister involved.

And all the spark will need is something in the hearts of those that hear which is combustible.

Anyway, it took me all my time to get myself all ready for the service in the afternoon. I hadn't really started preparation 'til this morning and, after being at school, it really took the whole of the rest of the morning to figure out and write up what I'd say.

And all with the aim of creating the 'spark' and of kindling the fire of the Spirit of God himself.

And yes, there are some fires being lit all right!

I was out seeing a number of different folk at night and called on the couple I've seen over many months. Not by arrangement at all. But they were glad to see me as always and eagerly welcomed me in.

What a way they have come in the course of the last few months!

In the course of conversation the guy narrated something that had happened on the last day of the year.

He'd had to go to the dentist for a tooth that needed removed. Something like that, at any rate. And he has this fear of pain, and so he wasn't looking forward to the thing at all.

So he'd prayed.

Now that in itself is a huge big step for this guy. Indicative of just how far he's come. And as he prayed in the waiting room he knew a remarkable peace. Which was just such an answer to prayer.

I thought that this was the climax of his story. And, don't get me wrong, I thought it was a pretty striking climax and a wonderful note on which to end the year.

But I was wrong! It got better still. When he was in the dentist's chair he prayed again (I guess he was closer now to the moment of truth!).

And as he closed his eyes in silent, concentrated prayer, and the dentist placed her hands in something of a therapeutic mode across the back of his head, he had this very clear and very striking vision of Jesus. Unmistakeably him.

A bit like John, that early friend of Jesus, who found himself in exile on the far-off island of Patmos. And the vision he had as well. Of Jesus.

Exile. The dentist. It makes no odds. Seeing Jesus like that transforms it all!

So here was this guy with his fear of the pain declaring the time at the dentist a really most wonderful thing!

And he'd come on from there with the rest of his family to join in the ceilidh we held here at night.

What a way to end the year! A vision of Jesus in answer to prayer: and a coming together in party mode with so many others here.

Combustible and close! It was back where I started the day under God.

The great fire of God which he's eager should blaze in these days!