What is it about BBQs that men seem to love? We often see in adverts and perhaps in our own circles that blokes love a good BBQ. Get the meat sizzling, standing around with the utility belt on with brand new tongs, spatulas and clearing apparatus that, if we are honest, gets one use then is left in the rain.
Recently our men’s group hosted a ‘BBQ grill off.’ We got the coals hot, and then the fellas arrived bringing with them obscure meats in a variety of marinades and competition winning contributions. Sadly our Vicar had his wife marinade some chicken skewers so I had to disqualify him when it was all brought to light. But it was brilliant, one bloke brought tin foil and placed it on the BBQ for 40 minutes, he didn’t touch it or even look at it as the excitement grew. He revealed a huge bit of steak in onions and mushrooms that had been slowly steamed, and as he put this mammoth steak into two bits of bread it started to fall apart. Amazing.
I think men love BBQs for a lot of reasons, for me it’s the fire. Watching the flames burning up the coals, the heat, the primeval feel about it, it awesome.
In the Bible God used fire a lot. Have a think about it, Moses and the burning bush, a cloud by day and fire at night for the children of Israel, Elijah and God’s answer in fire, John the Baptist talks about fire, it’s found in prophecy, letters and wisdom writings. Tongues of fire rested on the disciples at Pentecost and the Holy Spirit was at work… there are loads more.
Cool isn’t it? I love looking at stuff like that, so I went out a bought a fire pit. Actually I ended up with two but that’s a different story. I set the fire pit up, filled it with wood and burned stuff. As it burns I just sit, think about God, read my Bible and talk about life and God. Try it, get a fire pit and as you sit there in your back garden with a raging inferno troubling your neighbour read Hebrews 12:29.
‘For our God is a consuming FIRE!’
Image Credit: Olivia Henry
