Snow Day – Cold Day

Cozy Fireplace

I was peering out at the ice covered cul-de-sac and thinking, I’m going to wait a couple hours before I brave that mess, when the phone rang. 

A coworker broke the welcome news.  “The office is closed today.” 

“Ok, I’ll call the next person on the phone tree,” I responded.

“Oh dear, did I wake you up?” she asked.

“No, don’t worry; I have a cold.  It’s worse than it sounds.”

Inside my head I was doing a happy dance.  My head WAS stuffed up, and the idea of spending another day sporting slippers in my cozy home office sounded just fine to me.

I’d logged onto my computer and made a few phone calls when the lights first flickered.

Yikes, I’d better get this house warmed up in case I lose power.

Barbecue anyone?

I grabbed the remote for the gas fireplace and switched it on and then turned the thermostat for my furnace up a few degrees.  Won’t hurt to have them both going for a few minutes to get this place toasty just in case, I told myself.   If I get it nice and warm, the fireplace will keep it comfortable for the rest of the day.   Five minutes later the lights flashed brightly and then popped off  —  along with all of my heat sources. 

WAIT A MINUTE!  That’s not supposed to happen.  I pushed the remote for the fireplace through it cycles; and although it read ON and OFF respectively, nothing changed.  Rats, I guess it needs electricity to run.

I thought about calling my brother, but I hate bothering him with every little thing.  Surely the power will come back on soon.  But it didn’t, and the colder I got, the more the happy dance in my head died and was replaced with pressure.  After eight hours and when the thermostat read 58 degrees, I broke down and picked up the phone.

“Hey Leigh, my fireplace won’t light.  Is that normal?  I was kinda thinking it would work without electricity.”

“Oh yeah, it should,” he replied.  “But you might need to override the remote.  Take off the panel on the front and you’ll find a little black box.  Switch it to off and then click the on button on the left.  If you can’t get it going, I’ll swing over and work on it for you.”

God's beautiful world!

Five minutes later, I had heat.  As Mercedes, the cat, and I huddled by the blazing warmth, I kicked myself for waiting, for doubting that my brother would want to help me.

Later, when I was warm and started thinking about the lesson that must surely exist in this story, Philippians 4:6 came to mind.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;”

Our God is not a grudging God who sighs when we make our requests.  He has asked us to petition him with our needs and is waiting for us to call on Him.

Advertisement