Radiating...

There's an office I visit in Brighton, CO that has radiator heat. The building is the old City Hall and still houses a few businesses. When you walk in the building, it has that old, musty oak smell. The boards creak a bit and it reminds me of my elementary school. Such a grand old building with so much to say. Coming in close contact with the radiators brought back such vivid memories of the radiators we had in some of our homes when I was a child. The only way you could describe it is really by its name... RADIATOR...


In our home, there was a big coal furnace in the depths of the basement. Something (maybe my Daddy) caused the coal to continually feed in so the fire never went out in the winter. The fire heated the water that bubbled into the pipes leading to a radiator in every room.  There was a knob on the radiator regulating how much steam was to course through the unit. Sometimes air collected in the radiators and needed "bled" off to release the pressure, a pssshhh sound. There was no fan distributing the heat throughout the room/house. The radiator "radiated" heat into the room, much as you might see little ripples in the sun/air on a very warm day.


Today everyone knows forced air heat. A thermostat clicks, a furnace turns on, and a fan blows the heat through air ducts into rooms of your home. Radiators weren't so "in your face"! There are electric baseboard heaters that have a similar concept to the radiator, in that they produce a heat source without air to blow it into the room. If compared, though, you'd find it a harsh, dry heat that tentatively fills the room rather than the radiating warmth in rooms with radiators.


In this building in Brighton, there is a radiator in the very small bathroom. When you walk in, you can feel the heat radiating across the room. It migrates and permeates down into your core.  It could be considered overly warm by some, but to me it is more like a huge bear hug surrounding me and cloaking my soul in warmth and love.

Much as God's Sun permeates our bodies and His Son permeates our souls.

Warm, rippling, comforting. I long for this radiating warmth each time our thermostat kicks on and we're blasted with forced air heat.