Fire

by Rebekah Coover

What do you think of when you think of fire? Warmth? Destruction? Or do you possibly think of a thunderstorm, with lightning ripping through the sky? That's what we are going to talk about today: lightning. Sirach 43:13 says: "By His command He... speeds the lightnings of His judgement." Yahweh is in control of everything. He has power over the lightning. Sometimes, when we're in bed and the lightning is flashing, it's kind of scary, isn't it? But it helps to think about Yahweh flicking His flashlight on to see if the earth is clean enough yet.

Lightning is very interesting. When a streak of lightning comes down, you don't see it right away. We'll get back to that in a minute. Do you ever worry that lightning will strike a tree and set it on fire? Did you know that every time you see lightning, it's making connections with something? You see, when the lightning comes down, you don't see it right away. Let's imagine there is a tree in the middle of the yard. The lightning comes down. What do you think the tree does? It sends up little signals that say, "I'm here. Hit me." The lightning makes connections with the tree and then you see it. Isn't that amazing? Sometimes though, the tree gets punished for his daring actions, and he burns up. But that's the way lightning works. It has to make connections with something in order for you to see it.

Well, with all this talk, I still don't like thunderstorms, especially when the lights are turned out and I'm in bed. I like my sister to share my room with me when there's a thunderstorm. :-) But Yahweh is in control of the lightning. He's in control of everything. That's nice to know, isn't it?