fire WORKS!

I was reading a post from a fellow blogger who's saddened by the loss of a "light that went out"... for some lights seem to go out too soon. It reminded me of something I wrote once. So I decided to post this in the honor of a "light" that I never knew.

I was reading. Tim wasn't home. Prissy and Brooke were Internet-ting Online. The other two kids were at Granny's. As I read, I kept hearing a booming sound outside and couldn't figure out what in the world it was. I kept reading and kept hearing, kept reading and kept hearing, reading…. it continued in this cycle until I finally recognized the boom! Bolting, I ran toward the door yelling to my girls on my way, "Fireworks, girls! There's fireworks outside!"

The girls came, but only stayed for a peek. Their interest had already been captured and snared by a 15 inch boxed screen. The world's on fire outside, with a display of splendor, and they trade its wonder instead for their tranced-fascination to a box. So, I sat outside alone, yet not really, for I talked a storm with my Father out there! I watched the display of lights, and then, one long firework seemed to catch my attention. It soared higher than the others before it burst into its array of grandeur. This was when HE spoke to me there, and made me shake from within. I came in and wrote to my Lord in my journal:

Oh Dear Lord,

As I was studying Your Word I heard the sound of fireworks and I ran outside to watch their display. I talked to You there as I did. Sitting there all by myself... with YOU! After watching a few I zeroed in and watched one lone firework do its thing. I watched it do what it was created and planned and purposed to do at its making and its "hope" (anxious expectation!) from the one that created it, and also for the one who lit a fire to its tail, and for all of those gathered to watch. I watched the long trail of its blaze as it soared to its heights in the sky… it climbed higher than the others. I watched a long trail of a single light climb higher and higher and higher… and then, I watched its lone light burst into millions! The magnitude of what I saw frightened me… for I pictured it as "us" and what YOU plan for us to be and to do!

Our lights are lit to be the Light of Christ…. and as we study and learn and come to Your throne in praise and prayer and hear Your Word, we soar to great heights as You draw us closer to You. And then, when we are ready - as You have purposed and planned and waited with anxious expectation: Your "hope" of what You created us to be, we burst from the fire of Your Light lit within us, we explode with its Brilliance, and we light many more lights throughout the whole earth as we tell people of You. Sometimes, one at a time. One torch, one soul, lit up for Jesus can explode into millions. One tells one or two or three or more..… and one or two or three or more tells another one or two or three or more…... and those ones and twos and threes and mores in turn do the same…. for generations and generations and generations! Until multitudes are birthed and blazing in Jesus and another Light has been lit to pass on. Too many to count. Too many to number. After all, isn't that how Abraham started? As one… then two…. then three…. then more……… and now, how many is its number?

That one particular one (that took longer to explode captured my attention), it climbed higher than the others and blazed with a long trail before his blasts lit up the sky with thousands of tiny lights. I thought: It takes some longer than others, doesn't it, Lord? Me? Me? Is that what You're telling me? Yet still, in my loneness, You draw me closer to You!!!!

I noticed, too, as with the firework show, before the light completely fades from one that there is already another light birthed and shot out from behind it before all those lights were completely snuffed out. I liked that! I thought and wondered at all of the firework blazes that came before me that You've used to light the flames within my soul ....... Abraham… Isaac… Jacob… Joseph… Moses… Joshua… Elijah… King David... Isaiah... Jeremiah…. Ezekiel(!)… Matthew… Mark… Luke… John… Peter… Paul… Charles Spurgeon…. Oswald Chambers…. Jim Elliot… Granddaddy…. Beth Moore… Kay Arthur… Jill Briscoe… Julie Courson… Jeannie Allen... Bridget Smith....!!!! Torches in my world along with so many others!... flaming the fire within me!!! Lighting fires all over the world! As one, turns two, and two turns three…. and three and four and five… until they turns into millions! Whoa, at such fire!

At first, I was saddened at how quickly they faded and the lights went out. They all went out! That bothered me horribly! I thought: they don't stay lit. Why, Lord? I hated that picture. It was only moments before I felt so clearly that You said to me, "Their lights do not go out, Sharon, I just took them Home!… and their lights (My Light) still blaze behind them, lit inside another's soul!!!!!" Whoa! That's Good!!!! I could not help but grin at that thought! I felt You said to me, "I always replace their lights by others behind them... the fire, the Light NEVER goes out completely (Lev 6:13)! There is always a new light being born for the generation that's coming." And I sat there watching the sky light up ... by one… and then another... and then another… and then another…. Until! the grand finale of it all, of when You'll bring 'em (us!) all Home!

I want to light torches, Lord! I want the fire inside me to so explode that I can be used as a tool of Yours to light the multitudes and keep the flames burning! I want to tell them! I want to help people see Jesus! Fire works, Lord! It's blaze is contagious! Continue to take me to the heights! Draw me closer and closer to You, and show me more of Your Glory! … And when Your timing is right and my season has come, let me, like the Spring that comes after the Fall explode with Your Glory... and light fires inside the hearts of the multitudes... so that they in turn can light a multitude of lights inside a  multitude of others!!!!!

I love You, Lord! And I want others to see the magnitude and glory of You. You are Wonder-FULL who fills with so much wonder! May I be one used as a Display of Your Splendor! Draw me to You... while drawing others too!

In Jesus Who IS the Light!
Amen

January 15, 2007