Pyromaniacs and Hope

I made a hospital visit to Demopolis, Alabama one day several years ago.  As I stepped out of the pickup, the aroma of blossoms of Barrett pear trees flooded the air.  Being the global minded I was transported to a time long gone.  I could smell the burning of a field and I remember gathering sagebrush, setting it a fire, and slowly scattering the fire around the field surrounded by wild plums in full blossom.  I could see daddy on the 8N Ford tractor straddling the fire, breaking the freshly burned field, and I could smell the heavenly scent of fresh dirt mixed with smoke rising from burned sage, weeds, and stubs of long gone crops.

Momma always worried that would catch ourselves on fire.  Did I ever tell you that momma was a worrywart and daddy did not worry about anything?  Well anyway, my brothers and I were pyromaniacs, burning fields, burning trash, burning wood, and burning rubber.  Burning rubber was fun until I bought that first set of tires.

The old timers burned off the woods each year to help control undergrowth and bugs.  I do not remember having trouble with pine beetles when we burned the woods.  All we had to watch was the smut.

We burned all the clippings, limbs, and brush we cleared.  It was fun to tell tales by the fire after dark.  Once again all we had to do was watch out for the smut.  You ain’t lived until you see yourself in the mirror after standing around a smutty fire or using pine tops putting out wood fires or field fires started inexperienced pyrotechnical neighbors.

A fire is hypnotic.  It consumes, destroys, and eliminates where new growth can spring forth with new life.  Ain’t nuthin’ no prettier than new green sprouts shooting up in a smutty area.  It has an indescribable green hue.

When one burns a yard, field, or the woods, there is hope for new growth.  Life comes from that which was dead.  I think that is the reason the Resurrection was in the Spring.  That which was dead, comes forth living and vibrant.

As Ezekiel gazed upon a valley of dry bones God asked, “Son of man, can these bones live?”  Ezekiel answered, “O Lord God, thou knowest.”

I felt that way the first time I remember daddy burned the field.  Daddy knew it would produce a bountiful crop in due time.  Daddy gave me hope.  It reminds me of a story I used several years ago speaking on having hope.  It goes like this.

Several years ago, a teacher assigned to visit children in a large city hospital received a routine call requesting that she visit a particular child.  She took the boy’s name and room number and was told by the teacher on the other end of the line, “We’re studying nouns and adverbs in his class now.  I’d be grateful if you could help him in his homework so he doesn’t fall behind the others.” 

It wasn’t until the visiting teacher got inside the boy’s room that she realized it was located in the hospital’s burn unit.  No one prepared her to find a young boy horribly burned and in great pain.  She felt that she couldn’t just turn around and walk out, so she awkwardly stammered, “I’m the hospital teacher, and your teacher sent me to help you with your nouns and adverbs.” 

The next morning a nurse on the burn unit asked her, “What did you do to that boy?”  Before she could finish a profusion of apologies, the nurse interrupted her:  “You don’t understand.  We’ve been very worried about him, but every since you were here yesterday, his whole attitude has changed.  He’s decided to live.” 

The boy later explained that he had completely given up hope until he saw that teacher.  It all changed when he came to a simple realization.  With joyful tears, he expressed it this way:  “They would not send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?” 

 

Let’s celebrate hope in the Resurrection Jesus Christ our Lord!

So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.  And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.  Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.  So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army (Ezekiel 37: 7-10 KJV).

Dad, The Shed is Burning,: A Memorial Day Memory

I know that we can lose the real meaning of Memorial Day in the fanfare of fun and frolic.   My heart grieves for the parents of those who have lost sons and daughters in service of our country.

I talked with some men and women headed to Iraq a few years back.  I met them at the Cracker Barrel in Tuscaloosa as the Associational Team headed to Shocco Springs.  I studied each one of them and prayed for them knowing that some may not return home alive to their families.  They were so young.  Some were younger than Aaron who will be celebrating his 35^th birthday as some of you read this article.

I heard daddy talk of friend and comrades that did not make it home from WWII.  It always brought a tear to his eyes.  I never understood how much it affected him.  I know that we never did anything special on Memorial Day, but I remember some memorial events.

One Memorial Day we were planting momma some sweet corn.  Daddy took advantage of being off from work and we always worked on holidays.  We never cooked out, never went to the river, never visited, and never shot fireworks, but daddy worked the fire out of us.  It was his way of not allowing us to get bored and a good way to be thankful when we sat down at the table.  Momma’s fried sweet corn was good!

As we plowed, I noticed that something was wrong with our cub tractor.  The right rear tire was wobbling.  The rear housing was broken.  I got daddy’s attention and he said that he would drive it to his brother-in-law’s shop and I could follow him in the Batmobile.  Remember Batman and his Batmobile.  The Batmobile was our black 1960 Ford Galaxy.  It had those heinous rear fender wings, but it was a trill for this 12 year to drive two miles by myself.

Dad removed the rear tire and started welding as I played football with my cousins.  I noticed smoke coming from the top of the shed.  I asked my cousins if it was it normal for the smoke.  That said that when their dad welded that it did that.  I played some more and the black smoke rolled out from the eves of the shed.

I told my cousins I was going to see if dad needed any help.  When I went to the shed, I saw daddy sitting under the tractor welding as burning boards and debris from a raging fire burning overheard roared.  Daddy had his hood down and thought that the fire was the arcing of the welding rods.

I knew I had to get him out and I ran into the fire and pulled on him.  I screamed that the shed was on fire and as daddy raised his shield, he told me to run.  He pulled out my uncle’s welding machine and that was the only piece of equipment saved.  Everything else was lost.

There was no insurance on the tractor and my uncle did not claim our tractor in his insurance claim.  We had to stop farming until daddy found another tractor.  A few weeks later he did and I got to drive it all the way from the Shelby County airport to our house.  That was a great trip that I will never forget.  Driving a Farmall Cub tractor twenty miles all alone was fearful in the beginning but become more exciting by the minute.  Not many twelve-year-olds do that.

I have thought many times after the fire about how close my dad was to perishing in that fire.  I never considered my deed heroic.  I just could not stand to see my dad burn.  I can close my eyes and see the fiery boards falling around my unsuspecting daddy.  I never thought about them trapping him and me.  I glad I ignored my cousins and checked on daddy anyway.  Had I lost dad that day to a fire, I would have lost him to a second fire that lasts forever.  Daddy did not know Christ back then.  His rescue then gave an opportunity for salvation’s rescue many years later.

 

But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 2 Peter 3:7

 

And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.  Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Jude 1:23-25