Warming up the flue

This week I went with my bride to her office Christmas party Yes I said Christmas not holiday party in case you think I made a mistake calling it a Christmas party. The place was a lodge with timber frame trussing and as every good lodge should, it has a great fireplace. As happens with most party’s something was forgotten. So off I go to get the forgotten item. Cups not just any cups, but clear cups to let you see how beautiful the punch (unspiked) is. I come back from a successful hunting trip of getting the clear plastic cups.

While I was away someone had started a fire in the beautiful fireplace. As I came into the lodge all the doors were open as I enquired why it was explained because the place had filled up with smoke from the fire. It didn’t go up the chimney as it supposed to, it went out into the room. And the fire was out. I was looking forward to that fire so you can imagine my disappointment. I went over to the fireplace and checked the flue. You see I’m a great fire builder my secret is as my friend Paul calls it Girl Scout water (White Gas) That only works though for fires outside. I remembered we used to have a woodstove in an old house we lived in. I had to start the fire small and let the chimney warm up so it would start to draw and have the smoke go up the chimney, not out into the house as happened more times than I care to remember. I was too impatient. So I lighted some paper and held it up the flue and warmed it up. We then built the fire and it was you might call a roaring success.

As I looked at the fire through out the night God reminded me that I’m like the fireplace. He has to warm up my flue, and get me ready to obey him, or take his direction or even listen to what he has for me. It always works out better than what I could do. As I go through this Christmas Season my heart and prayer is to already have my flue warmed up and listen for the quiet voice of God.

Merry Christmas