Elijah and the Grill

It had been a while since we last used our gas grill, so when I smelled a whiff of gas yesterday I was cautious but not overly concerned. The grill has six burners but I normally only use three burners, and the three burners I was using looked good, the flame was evenly distributed; and of course I was hungry. The other three burners were off, and the side burners were off; so I thought the gas smell just must be because we hadn’t used it for a while.

The above being said, or rather written, I still paid attention to the grill. I opened the lid more than usual to see if anything was amiss. Once it seemed as if the gas smell was gone, but then back it came. Finally the turkey burgers were done.

After dinner I said to Vickie, “I’m not sure if we should use the grill right now. There was a gas smell while I was cooking. On the other hand, I am insured and I guess I could go to heaven like Elijah in flames of fire” (who needs a fiery chariot and horses when one can travel by grill?).

Vickie replied, “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

There she goes again, not letting me get into trouble and hurt myself; though she could have been thinking about the damage to the house should the wood deck catch on fire and the fire spread.

But think of it, there is Saint Peter at the gates, talking with Elijah about Elijah’s fiery transit to heaven. Peter says, “I wish I could have been there to see it when you arrived” (Peter lived a few hundred years after Elijah). Noah is listening to the conversation and he says, “Oh it was something, we’ll never see an entrance like that again.”

Then here I come, riding on a grill engulfed in flames of fire! I land right outside the pearly gates. Noah looks at Peter and Elijah and says, “Never say never.”