{"id":169984,"date":"2025-04-03T23:43:44","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T23:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/strange-fire\/"},"modified":"2025-04-03T23:43:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T23:43:44","slug":"strange-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=169984","title":{"rendered":"Strange Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n
\"\"\"\"<\/figure>\n

Gird up thy loins<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Last fall the derelict house next door burned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the fire started, light flickered inside like a jack-o\u2019-lantern. Then a giant tongue of flame broke free and soared into the sky. I held my hand against our bedroom window, and it was hot to the touch. The siding on our house melted like cake in the sun.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to leave yet,\u201d the police officer said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the firefighters gave up and decided to let it burn, they turned the hoses on our house. The force was so strong that water came through the sills.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Soon after, a fire on the mountain behind our neighborhood burned for days. At one point it razed the incline railway. A friend was hosting a Sunday school class full of children when the cable snapped and snaked down the mountain. Her window framed a serpentine roar of flame. She called it a dragon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In class, I taught the Book of Job and noticed the fire imagery. \u201cThe fire of God hath fallen from heaven,\u201d says one messenger. \u201cI only have escaped alone to tell thee.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

I should say too, these fires were accompanied by lots of grief: my friend\u2019s dad died. My son\u2019s classmate. A friend\u2019s daughter. An inordinate number of funerals. It seemed like the world was coming undone.<\/p>\n

I prayed, tried looking for better portents.<\/p>\n

Before one of the funerals, my daughter slipped her miniature LOL Surprise doll in my coat pocket for comfort.<\/p>\n

Our family spent time outside, tried training our eyes on everyday marvels. There were plenty, sure.<\/p>\n

We watched the creatures in our yard. One, a mockingbird in a dogwood tree, just overhead\u2014with a voice like a scythe, cutting the air. He seemed like an agent of creation, a creature who travels ether.<\/p>\n

In the charred earth of our neighbor\u2019s yard\u2014scoured by flame, forbidding as any alien terrain\u2014we found a toy truck and wondered about its owner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We walked the neighborhood and found scattered puzzle pieces on one of the footpaths, inviting a metaphor, a prompt to assemble all these events into meaning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After one of the funerals, I dreamed I was face down in a field, and above me was God himself, and I knew that if I looked up I would be undone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Later, our four-year-old said, \u201cHey Daddy, I know what God looks like. But I can\u2019t tell you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

I wondered what she imagined. A consuming fire?<\/p>\n

Robert Erle Barham is Professor of English at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, GA. He is the deputy editor of\u00a0<\/em>Current.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gird up thy loins Last fall the derelict house next door burned.\u00a0 When the fire started, light flickered inside like a jack-o\u2019-lantern. Then a giant tongue of flame broke free and soared into the sky. I held my hand against our bedroom window, and it was hot to the touch. The siding on our house […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":169985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12032],"tags":[1074,5640],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-169984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-history","tag-fire","tag-strange"],"yoast_head":"\nStrange Fire - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=169984\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Strange Fire - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gird up thy loins Last fall the derelict house next door burned.\u00a0 When the fire started, light flickered inside like a jack-o\u2019-lantern. 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