FIRE!

Isaiah 6 (paraphrase)
5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of polluted lips, and I live among a people of polluted speech…my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
7 With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."

Lord,
FIRE-angels flew
As close
As they could come
To You…while
Shouting the only thoughts
They could think…

“Holy! Holy! HOLY!
Commander-of-all-the-Angel-Armies!
The whole Earth
Is filled past filling
With the weight of His worth!”

FIRE
Was what one of the
FIRE-angels used
To burn away
My shame
My guilt…so
I could hear You…so
I could talk to You!

FIRE
Was what entered
My heart
As
I realized that You
The AMAZING
The CREATOR
The KING-OF-ALL-KINGS
Could hear me…
Was interested in hearing
Me…and even more.
You were intent on
Using FIRE to heal
My brothers and sisters…who
Were broken just like me…

Yes, Lord, it is true
What they say about LOVE…

“You are a FIRE!”

Us..and me…

meditations from Isaiah 6:1-8

Lord,
All I could think
Of…was
Me.

“Woe!” I said.
I pronounced my own
Doom.
I damned myself for
What I had said…for
Even in speaking
At Your request,
I knew
I had mis-spoken…for
NOW…I could see
Your glory in its brightness…
Your majesty on display.
I could see
How, without even trying,
Your majesty overwhelmed
Even the mightiest of
Created beings…who
Seemed to be made of FIRE…
Yet all they could
Think
To do or say…
Was to protect themselves
From your shining majesty
Even as they shouted
Praise…
“Holy!
Holy!
Holy!”
The God-Who-Commands-All-Power…
Commander-in Chief-of-Angel-Armies…
His awesome majesty
FILLS
All creation to
Overflowing!”

They were
Balls of streaking FIRE
Shouting un-ending PRAISE
As if their own power was…
Nothing!

All I could think
Of…was
Me.

You…on the other hand
Never
Seem to think of
Yourself…first.

From the beginning,
You have bowed
Yourself
To make the cosmos…
To people Earth
With us…
To become grieved over
Our sin…
To send messenger
After messenger…to
Help us return to
Our senses…
To you!

You never gave up
Your attempt
To re-deem us…
To re-life us…
To re-create us…for
In Your Deepest-Deep,
You loved us.

So…
While the Fire-Angels
Praised You…and even
As I shrank away
From You…
You
Were deep in a conversation
That You wanted
Me
To partner in...
A conversation focused on
Finding one more messenger
To carry word of
Your True-WORD
To us lost ones.

I had no idea!

One Fire-Angel flew
Down
To me with FIRE
To burn me clean…
So
I could hear You…and
Lose my speechlessness.

Lord,
Your great heart…
Your Deepest-Deep
Is always turned outward
In Love…for
It seems that LOVE
Is what You are.

THE MAKER (in us all)

Lord…
There she sits…little girl
Working intently
Looking at nothing else
But
The work
Her hands are doing…
The work
Her hands want
NEXT…to do.

All her effort
Goes
Into the stamp pad…
The scissors…
The colored paper…and
Paste…
Looking for a particular
Color
Every so often…and
Everything stops until
She finds it.

She makes a lake
Of rainbow-colored
Water
With unicorns,
Horses…and
A Pegasus drinking
Their fill.
Working each element together
On she goes…
Until at last,
“I’m finished.”
“It’s done!”
As she appreciates
Her handiwork…she
Waits for my encouragement.

I give it.
For I have never seen
Rainbow-colored water…nor
Have I seen horses quite
So beautiful.

What a clear picture
She gives us
Of Your heart, Lord…and
Of Your hands at work
Making
Us…and
All that is…
Until you could say,
“it is good”

Galaxies sang!
Angel armies chanted,
“JOY!”

All this
Is squeezed into
The making of each
Of us…
So that in our making
Of things
You
Might shine through.



God:

Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone-
while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?

Job 38:4-7 (NIV)