Fire helps forests regenerate; it contributes to the life cycle of a forest and enables some frail flora to get a new foothold. That's what the experts tell us.
People, on the other hand, do not consider the complete destruction of all that they own to be a necessary part of anyone's life cycle. They have no desire to test the potential of new beginnings by having everything turned into ash. I wouldn't eithe,r even though we all know that there will be new beginnings - there simply has to be. They will re-build their homes and their lives and most will take away some learning from these terrible days of loss.
In the Old Testament, God manifests both power and presence through a pillar of fire which protected, guided and reassured the Israelites on their flight out of Egypt. That old pillar of fire said God was there, God was powerful, and God knew their plight. This is exactly the kind of assurance most of us can use when it looks like everything we value is turning to ash. I wouldn't mind a smaller version of that old pillar of fire when the forces of this world are taking their toll on my life.
However, I cannot forget that God's fire was also pressing Israel forward, into unknown land with unknown outcomes....with just a bunch of promises and a picture of what it was going to be like. The fire may have protected them from the Egyptians who were following, but it also kept Israel from going back to the land of captivity. It was forward or nothing at all.
That's where we are headed with this God - forward, into the unknown, away from captivity to the forces of this world and onto a place - a promised place - where God is leading us.....even if it often feels like God is simply keeping the heat on our backsides so we don't change our minds. Scares me sometimes; enthralls me the next. Let us go forward, then, together.
No comments:
Post a Comment