Fire

On Good Friday as my husband walked through the door, the phone rang.  It was my dear friend who is battling stage 4 cancer.  When I see her number come up on my phone I always answer it doesn't matter what we're doing, as I never know what might be happening and I want to be there for her.  Her voice was quick and distant, she said, "There's a fire on the land." I had to ask her to repeat herself.  My mind went quickly, thinking what after all you've been through now your land is on fire? Surely I had heard her wrong.  No I hadn't.  She asked me to send my husband over, as her's was out fighting it and needed help, and the fire department hadn't arrived yet.  I looked up at my hubby who was taking off his shoes and said, "Go there's a fire and they need your help." He got his shoes back on and ran out the door. I sat my three children down and told them to pray hard.  We prayed for God to surround that fire with his angels and not allow it to spread.  We prayed for their Daddy and their god-father's safety and for the fire department to arrive quickly.  Then I waited hoping someone would call or text and let me know what was happening, how big it was, if they were safe and I kept praying.
Later I got a text that the Fire Department was there and much later I got a text that it was nearly out.  When my husband returned that night he was out of breath and his asthma was kicking into high gear.  The smell of smoke and fire covered him and his clothes. He told me how he had to drag buckets up the hill and how 3 fire departments had responded.  God had surrounded that fire, it didn't go near my dear friend's home and every person who helped was kept safe.  Though they were cut up from the brush and smelled of smoke, they were safe. We praised God for his goodness in the midst of this chaos. 

My mind wandered, I thought of how Shadrack, Meshack and Abidnigo were thrown into a fire for not bowing to the idol of the king, and the Bible's account of what happened upon coming out.

Daniel 3:27

 and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.

How amazing is that.  My husband smelled so strongly of smoke, his clothes, his hair everything smelled of fire and yet these men didn't even smell of fire, though they had been surrounded by flames so hot the guards who threw them in died.  How amazing is our God. 

I thought of Job and the trials he faced and of my dear friend facing trial after trial.  We continue to pray for her healing, for her health and for each of these trials to be turned around to bring God the glory.  

Though you face trials this week, big or small I hope you will trust God to see you through and remember that even when our trials feel like fire surrounding us, God is able to bring us out, to rescue us and to bring new life from the ashes.