day no. 16,774: good fire

"There are two kinds of fires, the Bad Fire and the Good Fire, the last must surely be the meaning of Bonfire. And the paradox is that the Good Fire is made of bad things, of things that we do not want; but the Bad Fire is made of good things, of things that we do want; like all that wealth of wood that might have made dolls and chairs and tables, but was only making a hueless ash." — G.K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men

"Bon" is derivative from the Latin for "good." So, a bonfire is a good fire. What good by what standard? In order to distinguish a good fire from a bad fire, we have to first be able to make a distinction between good things and bad things. For by definition, a good fire is the burning of bad things and a bad fire is the burning of good things. When a family's home accidentally goes up in smoke, it is a bad fire for it burned their lives and livelihoods up. But when the manuscripts of occult magicians go up in flames in the city square by the own volition, something magical is happening in that good fire.

Acts 19:18-20

Many also of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all; and they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew and prevailed mightily.

Good and bad when it comes to fire cannot simply be determined by intention or permission. To go back to our earlier example, the family house that burnt down wasn't bad simply because they didn't want it burned, but in that particular example, the accidental nature of it does add to the tragedy of its badness. So, we have to know how to tell the difference between good and bad, righteousness and evil, in order to know if a fire has been cleansing or destructive.

Hebrews 5:14

Solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.

The grace of God in His Word and the disciplined study thereof can help one distinguish between burnt black and ashen white. The Word of God provides the light by which to examine the flames.

When good and bad are defined, you know what to burn and what to spare and whether the one in flames is a witch or a saint. We need to know what to fuel and what to extinguish and we cannot know either until we've been trained to distinguish good from bad. When we know this, we will know when to watch and mourn and when to get up to sing and dance. A fire can either provide light in the darkness or it can be a blemish in broad daylight.

But in order to know which is witch and what should burn, we will have to learn to discern.