Flames

In my efforts to be more mindful to express gratitude daily, I realized that sometimes it is the simple pleasures that brings us to a place of thankfulness. Like the way my mouth feels after brushing my teeth. A warm bed. The first cup of coffee in the morning. Vanilla lip balm. Cocoa butter lotion. One of my dogs taking a nap on my lap. And dare I say it? Yes I must. The Yule Log Channel is back!

There I was on my chair in the living room, with my first cup of coffee watching the crackling fire on the television. So calming and peaceful, allowing me to speak my gratitude to God for my blessings and pray in His presence.

The dancing flames on the screen burned white, yellow, orange and red. It was beautiful. So I began to ponder the color of the flames and what they represent. Scientifically, the colors in the flames correlate to the temperatures in the fire.

The light we see is electromagnetic radiation (EM). The visible light spectrum that we can see as humans, in order, are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Just like a rainbow.

Heat has units of energy that are translated into light waves. The faster the light wave the greater the heat and the variance in the color.

The first visible glow of a fire is dark red at 900 to 1000 °F. Dull red is 1100 to 1650 °F. Bright cherry red is 1650 to 1800 °F. Orange is 1800 to 2100 °F. Bright yellow is 2100 to 2500 °F. And white is 2500 to 2900 °F. (Fun fact, temperatures hot enough to produce blue flames are more often seen when metals are used, as in welding.)

Sometimes at the center of a very hot fire, you may see a dull orange glow or even a dark space. This is known as black body radiation, and is associated with very high temperatures, for example as in stars.

The flame of a typical candle has an outer core that burns close to 2500 °F with an inner core temperature of 1450 °F. Who knew? A laboratory Bunsen burner only gets to 2000 °F. But the hottest of them all is the inner temperature of the Sun at 3,600,000 °F!

(Many thanks to Kevin Beck for the science behind the flames. What are the colors of a fire & how hot are they? Feb. 24,2020)

So now that we know the science, what does this mean for us spiritually?

If flames sparkle and shimmer, we as bearers of the Light of Jesus inside us need to burn bright, sparkling and shimmer for all we are worth. In my last post Hopefully, I state “I’m going to choose to live my life with my hope ignited and live in beauty and not fear.” I want to dance joyfully in the flames. To be consumed by the hot fire of the love that Jesus has for me and feel it deeply in my soul.

“Fasten me upon your heart as a seal of fire forevermore. This living, consuming flame will seal you as my prisoner of love. My passion is stronger than the chains of death and the grave, all consuming as the very flashes of fire from the burning heart of God. Place this fierce, unrelenting fire over your entire being. Rivers of pain and persecution will never extinguish this flame. Endless floods will be unable to quench this raging fire that burns within you. Everything will be consumed. It will stop at nothing as you yield everything to this furious fire until it won’t even seem to you like a sacrifice anymore.” (Songs of Songs 8:6-7 [TPT])

The footnote for verse six states the Hebrew word for “seal” can also be translated “prison cell.” He longs for his bride to be love prisoner, in the prison cell of of his eternal love. A second footnote on the burning heart of god states, it is a Hebrew phrase for “most vehement flame and is actually two words. The first is a “mighty flash of fire,” and the second is “Yah,” which is the sacred name of God himself. So the Hebrew shalhebet-yah could be translated “The Mighty Flame of the Lord Most Passionate!”

Sign me up and make me burn at 3,600,000 °F in my desire for Jesus! (Temperature of the Sun for the Son!) I’m grateful for the annual Yule Log channel to remind me of this eternal flame which would not be possible if not for His burning desire for us first!

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