The other week, when I was in Ocean City, enjoying some time off I woke up earlier than I usually do at home – go figure!!  But I wanted to be on the beach at sunrise and most mornings I was.

There was one particular morning, I got up at 5am and was on the beach by 5:10.  As I walked along the beach the sky went from dark to light and soon, way out on the horizon of the ocean a red glow began to appear. It grew to look like an ember in a fireplace – a deep neon reddish orange glowing ember.

As I watched, I thought how much it really did look like a log that had burned and was now just a glowing ember, but instead of growing dimmer, it grew brighter and bigger, taking on a more rounded shape, until at last it was a full glowing orb of light.

The sun had risen!!

But the log image stuck with me as I walked.  It was such an awesome image.  I began to meditate on the image I had seen.  I thought how much the Holy Spirit was like that small glowing ember.

If you have ever sat around a campfire, there are times when the logs seem like they are done for and the fire is about out – just a few small embers glowing – the flames long gone, but, just then, a bit of wind whips up or you poke around the ashes and suddenly the barely glowing embers flare up and flames begin to flicker once more.

These images and thoughts brought me to the Holy Spirit and the Church. Perhaps that is how it is with them: times when the church burns brightly with the flickering flames of the Holy Spirit going in all directions – alive and active.  Times, when it seems that we haven’t seen flames in a long time and give up hope for anything more than warm ashes and perhaps a small glowing ember now and then, so that we might taste the sweetness of that last toasted marshmallow before it is totally gone.

But, suddenly, without warning, the sparks begin to fly and flames leap up once more.  In our delight, we laugh; filled with the joy and the possibilities it presents. We find ourselves adding another log in the hopes of keeping the fire going; edging closer to take advantage of the renewed warmth that it offers.

Pentecost is a time of remembering that with God all things are possible, that we are not left orphaned but engaged in an eternal flame, with all its’ ebbs and flows.  A flame that will not burn out; A flame that will not let us give up; A flame that reminds us that as long as we are here, there is living to be done, in and through and the Spirit.

May we light the world each day with the Light of the Holy Spirit spreading the Good News, so every day there is a glowing ember of a Son-rise that breaks on edge of our horizon.