Right now, a number of wildfires are torturing Southern California. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and thousands of homes destroyed by fire. The best efforts of hundreds of firefighters cannot do anything more than try to provide emergency last ditch protection around buildings. It made me think about the nature of fire. What an amazing force it is. Once it starts, a wildfire will continue and spread and enlarge until conditions of wind and temperature and fuel no longer support it. Anything flammable in the path of the fire becomes fuel and the result is a great deal of destruction. But fire is also a great servant when tamed. Almost all of us derive benefit from harnessed fire daily in our car engines, gas furnaces and stoves. In a way, the Gospel of the Lord is a fire that began with the spark of an intense match two thousand years ago. It has spread across generations, fed by a Holy Wind and fueled by the dry souls of millions of people. But, far from destruction, this fire is a purifying energy that converts men of clay to sons of God. This fire can break out in unexpected areas, as when a thunderbolt strikes a forest, but often it passes through from one person to another and it will spread as long as there are people who respond to the message of life because they can't contain the liberating joy it brings and they must pass it to others.
John 4:28-30, 42 The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” Then they went out of the city and came to Him. Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
blessings,
Rob Smith
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