Roaring Fire

This evening, Kathy and I ate at Cracker Barrel for their Thursday special: turkey and dressing.  But I had a flashback and almost did something crazy.  Standing in front of the Cracker Barrel fireplace was a man warming up, just like I did when I was a kid in Maryland.  When my dad had begun building our house in 1958, we had no heat except for that fireplace.  I would slide out of bed early in the morning onto a red fox pelt on the floor and hurry into the living room where my dad had a roaring fire going.  I was the first kid up in the morning, so my brother just had to wait his turn.  I would warm my back side until it was almost too hot, then I would turn around and warm up the front side.  But just before I turned to the back again, my brother would grab my pajamas pantleg and pull the burning hot clothing against my legs!  I would howl, he would laugh, and the fight was on.  So, tonight, I had this urge to sear the legs of a total stranger warming up in a public place (Cracker Barrel).  Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?!  Solomon said in Proverbs 22:15, “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.”  And this evening, for a brief moment, this seventy-two-year-old kid needed his dad to give him what he needed.