3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
We must read the Scriptures carefully or we can miss the point. Here is a simple example of what I mean. Many say there were little flames that appeared over the heads of those gathered on the Day of Pentecost when the Church officially began. But that is not what the text says. It says everyone could see something that looked like flames, but it does not say there were flames. Exactly what they saw, we don’t know. We do know they used the language they had to describe what they saw. What they saw was not part of their normal experience. They did not have language to exactly match what they were experiencing, since this was a unique experience. It would be like someone from 100 years ago trying to describe a Bluetooth cellphone headset. They might say something like this.
“I saw what appeared to be a moth’s cocoon, hard and menacing. It seemed to like earwax for it always took rest around or in the ear. It possessed the victim with strange delusions causing them to believe they were talking to someone who wasn’t there.”
You get the idea. Without the words to describe their experience on that day, they had to use the language and images they understood. This might seem like a small point except that some people try to push small points leading to confusion and even mocking by those outside the community of faith. So what exactly appeared over the heads of those gathered? I have no idea. I do at least know in part its purpose. Whatever it was, it got people’s attention. It was so unusual that people had to stop and gather. As they drew closer they heard the people speaking their own languages, even though the speakers had never learned them. They started talking about what they were seeing and hearing and a larger crowd gathered. God wanted to place the spotlight of attention on the event of that day and He did it through what seemed like tongues of fire over people’s heads, flames that didn’t consume the hair and didn’t require buckets of water to extinguish. Sometimes when the Lord wants to get our attention something unusual will happen that we can’t quite explain, something that our words just can’t capture. I would suggest that we pay attention in that moment, not to the flame of fire but to what God wants to show us in those moments.
The Arnold Journey 