Chimneys
One of my fascinations when driving down the road is the numerous chimneys one may see.
I’m not sure how chimneys get separated from homes, but they do.
Did the home leave the chimney or did the chimney leave the home? It’s kind of sad to see a chimney all by itself in the middle of a field or in the middle of the woods. Whatever the reason for their present locations and state of isolation, I appreciate and value what they add to our roadway landscapes.
Every time I drive past a chimney I try to decide if it was connected to a small home or a large home. Did it heat one room or two rooms? I think about family members around the fireplace warming themselves on cold days, or simply lounging near the fireplace reading their favorite book or sharing a conversation with another person near and dear to them. As I ponder these questions, I think was this home a Christian home or not? In this home did the people who lived in it encounter God within the walls of this structure and its fireplace?
When we go to church, we expect to draw nearer to God and encounter God in the church. Many churches have altars where people go forward during a worship service and kneel. The church altar is a place where we can kneel before others and acknowledge that we can and do humble ourselves before our great Lord.
We are saying to the world that God is great and God is good. We are saying to the world that we believe in something and someone greater than ourselves—God. But I think the real test comes when we leave the church and go back to our homes and our chimneys.
Do we continue our acts of humbly kneeling before God, praying to God, and letting Him know that He is great and that we do appreciate Him in our homes and in our daily lives? My prayer is that we do. I feel sure we can all do better than we do at putting God first in our homes. If only chimneys made of stones or bricks could talk and tell us the real stories behind the folks in homes, we might be surprised.
In the Old Testament we read about altars and monuments of stones. One story that fascinates me is in the book of Joshua. We all know the story of God separating the Red Sea for the escaping Israelites to cross before the Egyptians caught them, but fewer of us remember a similar story in Joshua.
In Joshua 4 we read about a similar event. And to commemorate this event, 12 stones, representing the 12 tribes of Israel, were placed to remind people that the Israelites “passed over the Jordan on dry ground.” It was here, in the Jordan River, that the people of God encountered God, saw His strength, and decided this was monumental. They wanted others to remember this event.
I think it would be a nice reminder if we as Christians placed 12 stones near the entrance to the drive of our homes. In so doing, we could let others know that God reigns in our home and we do appreciate who He is and whose we are. It will also remind us as we pull in our drive to put God first in our homes. I bet these stone-piles could speak volumes to the world as do those chimneys we pass along the roadways of our lives.