Fire

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Published on Wednesday, June 8, 2016

By Rev. Glenna Beauchamp

Rivers and Oak River United Churches

After a wildfire has burned through a forest, all we can see is devastation. Nothing but charred pieces of once majestic tress, the skeletons of animals who couldn’t get ahead of the fire; nothing remaining of the once vibrant forest except cold grey ash. But that isn’t all that remains.

Even then, new life is beginning to emerge in ways we won’t be able to see for a while. There are certain seeds hidden under the ashes that can only grow when exposed to extreme heat. As these seeds are opened by the heat of the fire, they settle into the burned ground, take root and grow where there was once only dense thatch. This new vegetation, now open to the sun which had been blocked by trees, attracts new animals. The force of new life has been built into a boreal forest and is released only by what seems to be the total destruction of a wildfire.

Our lives can be like that forest. Sometimes tragedy devastates us and we feel dead inside. We can’t imagine how we will go on because there is nothing left. But God can also bring new life here. If we invite Him, God will send His Holy Spirit to heal us and re-create us into new life