Blazing Fire herself

I always wondered as a child what these words meant, “Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven”. They come from the Book of the Prophet Malachi and they are words expressing God’s anger by coming like a blazing fire.

I supposed what always confused me was the Blazing fire reference. Because that was the nick-name we gave a nun in grade school, blazing fire, I can tell you her left hand was a blazing weapon.  

She was my teacher in fourth grade in the days when we had those many air raid drills where we had to hide under our desks when the sirens were heard. I remember it well, “Shades down and under the desk” preparing for the real thing.

Yes, only a drill, but they were important drills, preparing for the worse, yet, hoping for the best, in case of some type of an enemy attack.  Drills preformed with perfection prevent the real thing from being unfamiliar to us. We’ll be ready. Today, our drill, our lockdown, is for real and should and must be practiced with perfection. If so, we will survive.

One day in fourth grade I was being disciplined by blazing fire herself, for something I’m sure I didn’t do, and then she punished me by walking me by the ear, into the long narrow cloakroom and closed the door. There I was all alone.

Suddenly, the air raid sirens started to blare and I could hear through the walls the scampering about of the kids sliding under their desks, pulling down the shades and Blazing fire herself, barking out her orders. But they forgot about me.

But, in that closet they also kept the pretzel bag, full of freshly baked salted pretzels that would be sold that day at recess. And they smelled so good.

Temptation got the best of me and I pulled up a strip of ten pretzels from inside the bag and tried to break one off, just one little pretzel, but, it slipped and a strip of 10 pretzels fell on the dirty hardwood floor exactly right next to the closed door that led into the classroom.

Thank God, the siren muffled the sound, but I knew that plenty of loose salt fell all over the filthy floor and if I didn’t clean that up, big trouble, the wrath of a nun called blazing fire would be upon me.

I threw the pretzels back into the bag, but for the life of me I couldn’t think of anything to sweep up all that salt. So, I was on all fours, pushing the salt in every direction away from the door.

The air raid sirens stopped and the cloak room door opened and there, Blazing fire herself came in, and there I was on hands and knees almost kissing the floor, blowing away the remains of any salt. Talk about trembling fear. But, something strange happened.

She reached down and helped me up, and apologized for leaving me all alone in the closet, and then commented, “but how good and obedient you were, down on your hands and knees, praying during the air raid drill.

But she said some powerful words that I live by, “Always be prepared, for some day when you least expect it, it will be the real deal”.

Those words are like the real meaning of life.  We don’t know when God will call us. And every day is a drill and someday a drill will be the real deal.  Thank you blazing fire.

“Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven”. Of course, Jesus will come in all his glory, but God also tells us before all of this, there will be persecutions.  We’re told, persecution will not merely be an occasional episode, rather, it will be an “indisputable reality” for the Church and for individual Christians. We know not the day, but we know to be prepared.

There is that old expression that says, “You know the drill”.  Make every day a drill for Jesus’ coming, be prepared, because one day, when we least expect it, it will be the real deal.

But for all of us in the midst of this terrible nightmare, we know the drill. We must stay safe by adhering to the words of Blazing Fire, “always be prepared”, by staying inside.  

We must also pray for every person and ask for God’s healing.  And when this is all said and done it will echo a Scripture verse in Jeremiah,  

“I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort and give them gladness of heart. I will lavish choice portions upon the priests, and my people shall be filled with my blessings, says the Lord”. God Bless!