Smoke Damage! 🔥

One night several weeks ago, I went to bed with the distinct thought of how easy it would be for a flame to spark and start a fire (and how hard it would be to get me out of the house if so!). This was the first time I had this thought.

I woke up about 5:30 the next morning to Nathan yelling "fire"!  Just then the smoke alarm went off.  Kevin ran out of the bedroom to find smoke pouring out of our oven. We had had granola in the oven during the night at 175 degrees and it was now on fire (obviously the oven malfunctioned)! The kitchen was so full of smoke they could hardly see anything. 

In the confusion, they didn't want to open the oven to let more air in so  unplugged it, then decided to carry it outside. While doing so, the oven door came open and a burning tray of granola fell out on the floor! They finally got the tray and oven outside where the fire kept burning until Nathan finally put it out. 

Meanwhile I was still helplessly in bed, hearing all the commotion, praying for protection and trying to picture what was going on!

Thankfully no one was hurt, and there was no visible damage to the house.  I say "visible" damage because the house, even clothes in the recesses of our closets, smelled strongly of smoke. 

Even though we had all the windows open and fans blowing out, we started feeling the effects of the damage throughout the day.  By the afternoon Kevin felt very sick. His system had had enough toxicity and he lost his lunch and emptied the contents of his stomach..three times! We ended up having to sleep elsewhere that night. 

How could the invisible damage have caused so much trouble? It reminded me of the subtle little things we hold on to in our lives that slowly build up to make us sick.  Maybe fear, trauma from our past, bad habits, anger, selfishness, impatience and pride (to name a few) are sins that are clinging to the inner sanctum of our being and causing spiritual distress.  We may not "see" the damage, but the symptoms are there as evidenced by our distance from God and strained relationships with others.  

How to get rid of the damage? In our case, we borrowed a couple powerful ozone machines and left for the weekend. I don't know the science behind it, but somehow those ozone molecules attached to the smoke particles and obliterated them.  By the time we returned, the smoke smell was almost entirely gone! Was kind-of miraculous! 

Similarly,  we must saturate ourselves with the heavenly "ozone" of prayer and study of God's Word, accepting the  forgiveness He gives that destroys the sin in our lives.

He says in Psalm 139:23,24:

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. 

And in Psalm 51 He reminds us that He wants to create a clean heart in us.

God protected us from destruction that early morning. Similarly, He desires to cleanse us from the hidden sins or "smoke damage" in our lives and lead us in the way everlasting.  Let's let Him convict us and cleanse us today!