A Tale of Two Fireplaces

Let me start this entry by saying this.... IT IS COLD IN MY HOUSE!!!!!!!!!! AH! Where is the heat?

My dear husband likes to conserve energy and money. Good traits, except on days like this. His theory of just putting on more clothes is not working for me today. I have on a sweatshirt and pants, socks and I am wrapped in a blanket -- still I am sitting here shivering... and wait, wait, I think, yes, I know I can see my breath!! It is a frosty afternoon!

We have a fireplace, but we have never used it. I decided when we moved in that it was too pretty and white to mess up with black soot, so I have some beautiful candles in it, on a lovely candle holder, absolutely no warmth coming from it at all. It looks pretty though. I think if there was a wood pile anywhere on our land, I would be building a fire in it - right now. I have a fireplace on my deck, if it weren't so cold outside, I might be tempted to go out there and a build a fire... but that would require me to move, and quite honestly my seat is the only warm spot on me!!!

I find myself sitting here thinking of fire and warmth and how a fire can make all the coldness of a room just scurry away. It reminds me of yesterday. I got the privilege to visit one of my favorite people in the whole wide world, and see their new home. Well, it is really an OLD house, on a pretty street in a quaint little town near me. The house needs work, (don't we all!!) but it has a charm about it, even the doorbell is cool! Some of the nicest features are the fireplaces in the house. They are not in working condition (yet) but the hearths and mantles are really pretty - unlike the cookie cutter fireplaces that grace the new homes these days. We sat in the room with the prettiest one for a while and spent some time admiring it.

I have thought about that fireplace a lot today. Even more so since I am sitting in front of my own fireplace, freezing, this afternoon. That old fireplace is worn out, it needs some tender loving care and yet, it is beautiful. The cracks and imperfections make it all the more beautiful. The years have given it character. I looked at it and thought of all the people that must have warmed themselves in front of it as they entered the home. Once it was new and beautiful. The wood mantle gleamed, the mirror above it was shiny and new. The tiles were all in place and the hearth was free of soot and grime. Logs were placed on it, and it blazed to warm the room, to do exactly what it was designed to do. Warm!

Now, my house is about a half a century younger than that other house, and the fireplace is for all intents and purposes brand new. The tiles are all in place, the wood mantle gleams (when I remember to dust it!!) and although there is no mirror above it, the glass doorfront is shiny and free of soot and grime. My fireplace has never seen a log, the inside is white and clean and it sits in my house as just a pretty focal point to the room. It has never lived up to its purpose. The reason it was built and designed and lovingly set in place was to warm our home. I have never allowed it do that. I have kept it from fulfilling it's purpose in our home. It is a sad mirror image to its counterpart in my friend's house.

I wonder which of those fireplaces I am most like? Most of the time I feel like the new one in my house. So worried about the way I look, or the way my life looks on the outside to the rest of the world. Constantly fretting over the frivolous and all the while never accomplishing my real purpose in life. My selfishness keeps me from being warm and caring to those around me. Often I feel empty and hollow on the inside, all clean and shiny, but waiting on a purpose to make me full and complete. How often do I hurry through my day, skimming over the real moments that make life worth living, that bring warmth to my family, create memories and that make our life and home blaze with character?

I so want to be more like the fireplace in my friend's home. I want to see myself years from now, worn out, broken in spots, yet full of character. The marks and scars on my life, from years of serving others, caring for others and investing in them, just making it all the more a beautiful life. I want to know that my purpose in life had been fulfilled. To know that I warmed my friends, my family and all others who came in contact with me with love and kindness and joy. That I gave more than I was given. I want to know that if I should ever be broken down, someone would come along and want to love me enough to find out why I am broken. That I would look worthy enough to be fixed. I want to be the fireplace full of character, admired and loved for my faults as well as my potential.

I am so thankful for a God that looks at me and sees the broken, loves me and reaches down to make me workable again. I am so thankful for the second chances in life and the opportunity each day to remake myself into that "old" fireplace, fulfilling my purpose, warming those around me and working to be full of character and not continue on as a shiny new, boring and unused model.

Living Happily Ever After,

Beverly