Brrrrr!

It’s New Years Eve Eve today and with holidays on Thursday and Friday, I am having trouble figuring out what day of the week it is. Fortunately at the bottom of my computer, the day, date, and time are shown; so when in doubt, I can check that information.

As I mentioned yesterday, Tuesday was “my day”. The time (at least in the morning) was mine to spend leisurely. Today was not a repeat—we awoke this morning to a cold house. The furnace was not working! Our furnace is fairly new so this came as a big surprise. We had issues with our old one, but this was unexpected and chilly.

We do have a couple of fireplaces in our house which become very popular when the furnace is out because of technical difficulties or lack of electricity. They can keep the house temperature from going too low even if not as comfortable as a properly working furnace.

Take a moment to stop to think that in times past, fireplaces were the only source of heat. I rarely consider what the weather must have been like during the stories in the bible. I act as though it was always comfortably warm or cool and the characters were comfortably seated on soft rocks, etc.

Was it nice weather when Mary gave birth to the Lord? Did Jesus always walk around in comfortable temperatures? Well, we do know about some storms out in the boat. I am reminded of the story of the night of Jesus’ arrest. In John 18:18, we read, “It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.”

Was Jesus relaxing near the fire? No, he was being stripped, beaten, and mocked, obviously in cold temperatures. Let me not think while I sit in a comfortable chair in comfortable temperatures reading about the final hours of the Son of God, that it is a nice story. It isn’t! It was a time of horror as the Savior, there in the coldness of the night, began paying for the sins of the world.

Later we see the Apostle Paul helping to build a fire to protect against the cold, Acts 28:2-3 “The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold. Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire…”

Tonight, I will be grateful for the fireplaces and hope that the furnace can be restored in the morning. As I read the scriptures, I will seek to see those who walk on those pages as real people who experienced cold and rain and times of discomfort. I will seek further, to see their faith, joy, and peace as they followed God.

I’ll close this with a selected thought from Zechariah 14: 1,6 “A day of the LORD is coming… On that day there will be…no cold or frost.”