Last night I stood on the shoulder of the highway just a few hundred yards from our home, watching a wildfire threaten our local hospital and care facility. Flames leapt high over trees, higher with each gust of wind. The sky bled.
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Fire scared the Hell out of me another time, long ago.
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I was six, and pondering eternity. The certainty of burning in hellfire if I refused the offer of Jesus Christ鈥檚 rescue chased me from my bed. The Holy Spirit鈥檚 firm finger on my soul propelled me down the narrow stairs from my attic bedroom to where my mother stood at her ironing board. One of those practical old-fashioned ones stored behind a narrow door in the wall.
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In tears, I blurted my fears.
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Mom gave me countless gifts over the fifty-eight years we shared on earth. Love. Acceptance. Grace. Humour. A pattern to follow. But her greatest gift remains the prayer she prayed with me that night. A prayer that guaranteed, on God鈥檚 authority, we could share eternity in heaven. 鈥淔or God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him, should not perish, but have life everlasting (John 3: 16)鈥� she reminded me.
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Mother knew how to pray, though she did most of that in private. But we prayed aloud together that night. Even at six a child knows right from wrong and my prayer trembled with pleas for forgiveness for my contrary ways. Hers lilted with gentle guidance and gratitude for Christ鈥檚 love and acceptance.
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When we rose from kneeling at our old kitchen chair, I felt new. Cleansed. At peace.
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I鈥檝e bought tickets to far-away places in the world, but that night I accepted a free one to an entirely different destiny. 鈥淚f anyone is in Christ,鈥� the Bible says, 鈥渢hey are a new creation. Old things have disappeared. All things become new.鈥� I floated back up the attic stairs; a child rescued from Hell鈥檚 flames. I knew it to my core.
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That evening became a milestone. A tower. A rock of remembrance I cling to. I have had doubts. Sometimes my childlike faith seems too simple, even silly. I have looked, at times, for more complicated answers to the existential problems of life and eternity. There are none. 鈥淛esus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so,鈥� is at once the most profound and most simple solution. And always that firm and loving finger on my soul reminds me who I am and to whom I belong.
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That step of faith has sustained and guided me throughout life鈥檚 countless up and downs. It has also assured me that God has a place for me on Heaven鈥檚 sweet shores, with my beloveds who have reached there first. I have no more fear of eternal flames.
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Sometimes it takes a fire, here and now, to remind me from what I have been rescued.
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The fire that threatened my city was hard-fought and won. Today, thank God, we are all safe.
