Wild Fire

We are out west, and wild fires are raging at the moment.  The summer in Washington has been hot and dry.  With the winds picking up, conditions are ripe for fires.  The middle of the state is in flames, there is another wildfire not 10 miles from here, and the sun here has been blocked for several days.  There is ash on the deck.  An entire town is gone.  This is tragic stuff.

In Montana, where my husband is camping... it is green.  There are no wildfires, surprisingly.  Here, everything is dry, the grass is brown.  There, it is still moist with life.  Life protects the wilderness from burning.  Amongst the thousands of acres burned in the middle of Washington, the only things saved were the apple orchards.  Because they had been watered, and had been bearing fruit. 

I can't help but think of judgement day, when the fullness and intensity of God's love is poured out onto everyone in it's full force.  If we are dead, if we do not have His life in us, if we have dried up in the sun of this world... we will burn, just as the standing dead tree burn, and the brown grass burns.  Who will survive?  Those still green with life.  Those bearing fruit. Life is from Him, fed by the water of His spirit, bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  The fire will not harm us; although it may be painful, the fire will not consume us.  It will purify us, burn off the parts of us that are dead, in preparation for eternity in His presence. 

Some day, we all will experience the wildfire.  Of that I am certain.



Quote of the Day

"The Church, which has spread everywhere, even to the ends of the earth, received the faith from the apostles and their disciples . . . Having one soul and one heart, the Church holds this faith, preaches and teaches it consistently as though by a single voice. For though there are different languages, there is but one tradition."

St. Ignatius of Antioch (AD 35-98)

Quote of the Day....St. Augustine

Remarkable how this man is so relatable.  How much I see myself in this.....

"I was sure that it was better for me to give myself up to your love than to give in to my own desires. However, although the one way appealed to me and was gaining mastery, the other still afforded me pleasure and kept me victim. I had no answer to give to you when you said to me, ‘Rise, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you.’ When on all sides you showed me that your words were true, and I was overcome by your truth, I had no answer whatsoever to make, but only those slow and drowsy words, ‘Right away. Yes, right away.’ ‘Let me be for a little while.’ But ‘Right away—right away’ was never right now, and ‘Let me be for a little while’ stretched out for a long time."
— St. Augustine

A Picture I Love

... Because it reminds me of my boys, and that they are not only in my care alone.