Wind and Fire
I remember waking up that Tuesday morning and looking out our front window and seeing the East wind blow. It was a weird feeling and I told Rich, look at that, the wind is blowing from the East. The wind around here blows from the North West almost all the time. Our neighbors across the way have a flag pole with an American flag, so I can always look outside and see the direction of the wind. Later in the day I took Mary to her piano lesson across town. I noticed the traffic was unusually heavy on 99 for a mid afternoon. When we got to the big intersection by the Mall, instead of going into town, the police were directing traffic to go right. So I thought, wow there must be a big accident on the road. So we took a round about route on Columbus to Stewart to her piano teacher's house. When we got inside, Mary's piano teacher said there was a big fire in Ashland. As I was sitting on the couch listening to Mary play, her teacher's little dog kept getting up on the couch and looking out at all the wind and the darkening day as the smoke filled the air. She was nervous and unsettled as she usually just sleeps on the floor by the teacher as Mary plays. After the lesson, we wished her teacher well and headed back the route that we came. I looked behind and saw a gigantic column of smoke rising in the air in the southern sky. I told Mary that we needed to go straight home and not stop at the store. When we got home around 3:30 pm I told Rich to turn on the TV and see what was going on. To my horror I saw that it wasn't a brush fire in Ashland but Talent was burning and it was going into Phoenix and heading for Medford. We were glued to the news on the TV and computer until well after 10PM. I couldn't hardly process what was going on. We texted our friends and Rich's mom to see if everyone was OK. One couple lost their house in the fire but everyone else was safe. The next day we were notified of a Stage 2 evacuation for our neighborhood because of fire breaking out near Costco. So we began to pack our things. I became frightened thinking of what I would take. I prayed and asked God and He helped me. We only had a small car with the 3 of us and the kitty would not leave much room for anything else. Getting ready to go was like a refining fire. I was thinking what really matters here, well really only our lives. Would I be sad, if everything got burned up? Yeah, really sad, especially my garden, all the lovely flowers and rose bushes gone. I couldn't stay in that thought very long, it was too dark. Fortunaely we didn't have to go. Our stuff stayed packed for a while. Then the videos started pouring in on facebook of the fire and the after math of it. I couldn't stop crying seeing all the suffering and loss. My heart was breaking. I had seen fires in other places and felt bad but it was nothing like this. This was my home, the place I had grown up in. All the memories began to flood in of the places that are now burned and in ashes. My beautiful valley on fire. It will never be the same. Something happened that Tuesday that has changed the course of history for me. Things will be rebuilt, but a scar will still be in my memory. Good things will come from the fire, people coming together to help each other and comfort each other. I flooded my facebook page with places that were giving help and pets being found and ones trying to find lost kitties.
Then I began to think of the Lord's refining fire and how on the day of Pentecost those many centuries ago, the Lord used those signs of wind that filled the house and tongues of fire appearing on their heads. That is what happened that day in our communities and wind filled the valley followed by fire. It made me think of revival fire. Fire causes loss, just as following Jesus we will experience loss. Many followers of Jesus joyfully gave up what they didn't need and shared with those who needed things. Then persecution came to those following Jesus from those who did not believe, those who were proud and did not want to change, did not want to give up their lives to do the Father's will. They liked their lives and their positions of influence and the followers of Jesus were upsetting the apple cart. The Lord was confirming his followers with miracles, the lame were walking, the dead were being raised, the sick were being healed. So now many of the followers of Jesus were being chased out of their homes, rejected by their families and had to flee to other towns. How were they able to withstand this kind of refining fire, because their treasure was in the future, the day their salvation would be completed when they would dwell with the Lord forever. Revival fire makes us realize we are but dust, ashes and the things of this life will not last forever. We need to focus on what God wants, what things will last forever.
