The Burning House

When my brother and I were about 10 and 11 our dad would take us into burning buildings. Yeah I don't have a messed up childhood at all do I? He worked for the University here in town and would help teach classes for smaller volunteer fire departments all over the state. It was usually cheaper for a family to sign over their unused house to the city than it was to have it bulldozed. So the city would then give permission for the volunteer fire department to use it for training. We would spend the whole day with dad as we would light different rooms on fire and then watch the crews putting them out. Not sure too many people have had their dad tell them, "Go light that kitchen on fire and then we will get started!" At the end of the day when the training was done the entire house would be burnt to the ground leaving only the chimney standing.

It was always fascinating to me to see what families would leave behind. Old pictures, books, furniture, dishes, and toys were usually scattered around the house. On some occasions the fire department would find money tucked away in a wall that was being torn apart. Money that the owner had forgotten about years ago. If you had to leave your house, what would you take with you and what would you leave behind?

The idea of leaving things behind comes up over and over in Scripture. Almost every story in Genesis involves people leaving behind a former way of life and trusting God for the future. Genesis then leads to the Exodus of an entire race which is led out of Egypt and thus slavery. Further along in the writings of the prophets you see times when God's people are being carted off from their homes back into slavery. Our theme this year in Sunday School is to think about what God is setting us free from, or the things we need to leave behind. One way to begin that process is to think of the things we can't leave behind (or think we can't leave behind).

That is when I ran across this interesting website called, "The Burning House." The premise is simple. If your house were burning down and you could only save a few of your possessions, what would they be. They then encourage you to take a picture of those items and post them on their website. Might be a good ice breaker for a group of adults or students as sort of an advanced version of show and tell. Groups could be encouraged to either bring these items in to talk about why they are meaningful to them, or bring in a picture of the items to share with the group.

What items would you try and save from your house?