For his confirmation, my son received a lapel pin depicting the Holy Spirit as fire. I was captivated by this image and have been meditating on it for weeks now. How is the Holy Spirit similar to fire?
My home is in a rural farming community. We are allowed to burn yard waste and brush as long as it's monitored and controlled. Some of the farmers clear their fields by burning. Occasionally, the fire gets out of control, spreading into neighboring fields.
The Holy Spirit is uncontrollable, unmanageable, and unpredictable. We try to contain this fire, to make it work for us. We would like the Holy Spirit to burn certain areas of our life, renew certain fields before planting. We don't want the Spirit burning wildly into adjacent areas of our life that we are not ready to surrender. We want peace not chaos. Order not disorder. We prefer the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, not fire.
Fire as purifier; Holy Spirit as purifier.
ReplyDeleteI never thought of the HS as "uncontrollable, unmanageable, and unpredictable" -- see God more like that. The HS seems to be a resident of God within us. Within He burns our will, disobedience, etc, which needs to be purified. But, he's also a warm fire which heals, which comforts. That's kind of how I look at it.
Congratulations,, to your son because he received a lapel pin depicting the Holy Spirit as fire.
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