It’s about the fire!

Christmas was different this year. Usually, we have our schedules full of family events, bouncing back and forth between Kelly’s family and my own in a dizzying array of dinners, shopping events, and get-togethers. This year, we’ve pretty much stayed put, and aside from sharing Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner with our missionary family here in San Jose, we’ve been in our house catching up on some cleaning, snatching time to play games with the kids and of course playing with those cool presents that we got each other.

My present this year was yet another coffee maker. If you know me (Dave), you know that coffee has been a hobby for me, at times bordering on an obsession. I roast my own coffee as well as prepare it in a number of different ways in a number of different coffee makers. This latest coffee maker, a coffee syphon, or vacuum coffee pot, is something that I had owned before, but there is a distinct difference about this one.

This coffee syphon makes coffee like all others. You pace the coffee in the top of the maker, while the water goes into the bottom. As the water in the bottom is heated, it rises through the tube and into the upper portion of the maker where it is mixed with the ground coffee. Then after a few minutes of brewing, the heat source is removed and the brewed coffee is sucked back into the lower container, resulting in a perfect cup of ground free caffinated goodness. (You can use decaf as well.)

The difference in this pot is that the heat source is an alcohol burner, that’s denatured alcohol friends, and that is what makes it an extra special coffee gadget. There is just something about watching the flame lick the bottom of the pot that makes this method so intriguing.

Isn’t that the truth about fire in general? It has a certain mesmerizing quality about it, be it in a campfire, or a fireplace. It seems to cause us to just sit and watch for awhile.

So it is with those who have been touched by the flame of the Spirit of God (Acts 2:4). It seems that those who have really experienced the power of God in the way that the apostles did have a certain quality about them. A certain manner that causes others to take notice of them. It was true for Peter and John in the temple(Acts 3), for Paul in Lystra (Acts 14), and is true for us today.

So what should we seek for in the New Year? A better coffee maker? Perhaps, but ultimately, we should seek for the fire that will cause others to take notice, take notice not of who we are, but Who we represent.