Fire

When I was in college, my older brother was serving a mission.  He left his movie collection at home, and because I am his little sister, I did exactly what little sisters do: I busted into that bizznass.

I snagged up his Horatio Hornblower collection. Have you seen this series?

 

It's amazing.  I mean, it's REALLY amazing.  And I should also add: I watched it when it aired for the first time on A&E and fell in love with Horatio.  Hunky, dunky.
 There's one scene where he runs from one cannon to the next, his curiously large mouth screaming, "FIRE!....FIRE!.....FIRE!....."
My roommates and I rewound that part (yeah, they were VHS) so many times.  We couldn't get over how BIG his mouth was, and it became our motto when things got to be rough.

FIRE!  We would cheer each other on.  FIRE!  We wrote it on our Community Quote Wall, forever attached to the old 1940's adobe walls.  FIRE!

(I dare you to not stare at his mouth.  DARE. YOU.)

That was 10 years ago.  Gosh.  Has it really been that long?

A few days ago, I was reading in 3 Nephi.  In Chapter 12, the first two verses talk about baptism by fire.  I've read the passage before and passed over the words without a second thought.
"After ye are baptized with water, behold, I will baptize you with fire."
"They shall be visited with fire."

Yeah, yeah.  Let's get to the Beatitudes already...

But the other morning, I couldn't stop looking at it: FIRE.... FIRE....

I was baptized when I was 8.  I was a giggling 8 year old who could hardly pay attention to what was going on for the thrill of it all.  Everyone was looking AT ME and giving ME stuff and hugging ME and they were all so proud of ME.

It was a big deal for a middle child.

I was baptized, and I swore I would never, ever sin again.
Much like that one time I got married and promised I would never, ever let myself go.

*chortle*
 kids...

I was baptized with water.
Right now?  It's fire. 
It's hot right now.  There's heat around me -heat IN me -heat above me -heat below me. 
I'm immersed in the heat. 
And because of it, there is one thing I have come to know for absolute certainty:

MY SAVIOR LIVES.
MY FATHER IN HEAVEN LIVES.

I am converted.

And if you bring it down a few verses:
"Behold, do men light a candle and put it under a bushel?  Nay, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light to all that are in the house."
The fire that is surrounding me right now -the fire that I am immersed in -it will remain with me always.  Though not every walking day of the rest of my life will be like this, though I may not be here blogging daily five years from now, the fire will remain with me: a small flame on a candle.  But a FLAME nonetheless. 

(I might go so far as to say an eternal flame, but I don't want anyone walking away from this post singing 80's ballads.)

And the next verse is very Step 12:
"Therefore let your light so shine before this people."

MY SAVIOR LIVES.

MY FATHER IN HEAVEN LIVES.

THEY ARE ALIVE IN US.

WE ARE ALIVE IN THEM.

THEY ARE THE LIGHT.

WE ARE THE LIGHT.

FIRELIGHT.