Say WHAT?!?!?

 “If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
   if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

--Romans 12:20, cf Proverbs 25:21-22

This verse has always bugged me. Think about it: The first part tells us, in essence, to love our enemies and those who trouble us, and the last part sounds like somehow, this niceness becomes a vengeful, angry act. And-- I admit it-- that part felt kinda good sometimes. (Or am I the only person who never understood these juxtaposed thoughts?)  

This morning I finally got it. The explanation that made it all make sense, snapped it into focus.

In ancient times and ancient cultures, fire was a very necessary part of everyday life, for cooking, for light and warmth. So it was important to be sure your fire burned strong and bright. 

But sometimes, in a very literal sense, your fire would just go out. And that is when you hope you have a neighbor willing to share his (or her) fire with you.

So you would take the container you had for such purpose, balance it atop your head (because this is how many containers were carried "back then"), and you would set out for your neighbor's tent. In a culture that pastured many flocks or plowed large fields, it might be a bit of a walk.

And when you got there, a good neighbor would give you enough coals for a decent fire, assuming that some would survive the walk back to your own tent.

But a generous neighbor would heap that container full of live coals, increasing the likelihood that you would have enough "live" fire remaining to set your home fires ablaze again.

So there it is. God is instructing us not to just (just) give food and water to a neighbor in need. 

God is also expecting us to offer food and water to those who-- well, maybe they just get on our nerves in one way or another.

And on top of that, so to speak, God is expecting us to extend a generosity of spirit that leads us to heap live, burning coals atop the head of someone we would not call "friend," and to do so joyfully, realizing that our own fires might go out someday.

This is love as God intends: that the warmth we extend to those in our family be carried generously and joyously into the lives and homes of all who are in need.

And we don't even need to wait to be asked. 

Whose hearth is a bit chilly tonight? How might you reach out and rekindle the flame of God's love?