“The firemen said there were little fires everywhere”
This line about actual fire helps explain the title to Celeste Ng’s widely-read novel Little Fires Everywhere. In the aftermath of the burning of the home of Elana, one of the main characters, this is the conclusion of the firemen. The house, a place of injustice and unrighteousness, erupted because of multiple points of flame throughout the house.
A line about symbolic fire also explains the book’s title. Just prior to the house fire, Mia, the story’s other primary character, discusses figurative fire:
Like after a prairie fire…It seems like the end of the world. The earth is all scorched and black and everything green is gone. But after the burning, the soil is richer, and new things can grow … Sometimes you need to scorch everything to the ground, and start over. After the burning the soil is richer, and new things can grow. People are like that, too. They start over. They find a way.”
The novel explores the things that scorch us, creating the rich soil for new growth. It proposes that figurative fire is often called for in order to bring down evil.
I’ve been thinking about this image as I’ve been reading about the Spirit. There are many images in Scripture for the Spirit. We’ve looked in previous posts at the images of wine, wind and word. Another important image for the Spirit is fire:
John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Lk. 3:16 ESV)
3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:3-4 ESV)
As fire, the Spirit has a scorching effect, tearing things down and creating space for the new life of God to emerge.
For example, when Peter is confronted by the religious elite for having compassion on a man in need, Peter is “filled with the Spirit,” and says:
“Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. (Acts 4:8-11 ESV)
During Paul’s first missionary journey, he is opposed by a local magician. And Paul is “filled with the Spirit,” and says:
“You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? (Acts 13:9-10 ESV)
And Peter, set alight by the tongues of fire of the Spirit speaks these words:
Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36 ESV)
Talk about scorching! Again and again, when the people of God are filled with the Spirit of God they are ignited with the fire of God. They scorch. They torch. They burn down injustice and evil. They set aflame anything that stands in the way of the work of God. And what remains is the warm and rich soil needed for the new life of God to emerge.
The title to Celeste Ng’s novel sounds prophetic. The fact that the book examines issues like racism and sexism is significant. It feels rooted in this biblical image of the Spirit. Indeed, it seems that in our world today, so marred by the daunting institutions of racism, sexism, injustice, unrighteousness, abuse and corruption, what is needed more than anything is little fires everywhere. Christians and churches aflame with the Spirit of God, burning principalities and powers to the ground, so that the new life breathed into existence by God can grow in their place.
