Into the Fire

Last Thursday, after a night's rain, Adam decided it was time to burn up the four piles of brush in the pasture. He started early and by the time I went outside, one good pile remained. Adam and I sat nearby and played with Ned and watched the fire. Later Adam rolled the massive crape myrtle stump onto the glowing embers so it could keep drying out and burning up. Remember when he dug that up? We've been burning that stump since late November!

Adam told me the strangest thing -- he'd never seen anything like it before. The morning was quite damp and cool, and as he tended the fire before I arrived, two young grass snakes crawled out of the grass and straight into the fire. They didn't recoil when they met the heat. They longed for it, and he said they wriggled straight into the glowing coals. Looking for warmth and comfort, they slithered into the fire and burned themselves up.

I immediately thought of similar human behavior. The world is a cold, cruel place for many. They seek comfort in things that consume and destroy them. Alcohol? Drugs? Damaging relationships? Porn? Self-harming? How many of the things we turn to for comfort actually kill both body and soul? What a warning to us!