Using Ashes for Soil

A fire raged through my family two weeks ago. The kind of fire where you stand looking at the charred timbers and wonder, "How could something like this happen to people like us?" Good and bad events are not discriminating. Regardless of how you live your life, both good and bad things will happen to you.

In the immediate days after receiving the news of this fire, I marveled as I watched God churn the ashes into the hard ground beneath to cultivate a fertile soil. The smell of smoke was carried away as the days marched on. Seeds were planted in the new soil and a harvest of healing began to grow. People in my life whom I prayed for years to reconcile their differences are now speaking to each other in positive tones. Once violent responses to each other has been replaced with understanding and love. Funny how when people have no choice but to lean on each other for support finally realize: Hey, being in the same room with you isn't as bad as I remembered it used to be.

God knows what He's doing. He allowed this painful fire to rage through the securities of our family because He knew the aftermath it would produce. As I look back on the last two weeks, I never would have guessed a day like that could lead to a day like this... when sunshine is brightening through the dark abandoned hopes of the past.

"I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit. You heard my plea: 'Do not close your ears to my cry for relief.' You came near when I called you, and you said, 'Do not fear.'" Lamentations 3:55-57