Refiner's Fire

Disclaimer #2....both boys are upstairs totally safe and asleep COMPLETELY unaware of any of the events which unfolded this morning.

As I sat here this morning, typing a pithy piece of potty prose that you can read below, a spark was ignited. The spark turned into flame and the flame turned into a fire. And as I rode in the car to pick up the kids from school, the fire grew and grew and began to spread across a field. A field next to the school.

As I drove behind an ambulance with it's lights flashing, I had the emotion that I'm sure many have had... I hope that's not going where I'm going. I had hardly had the thought when I saw the smoke. My stomach dropped as the closer we got the school, the more likely it appeared that that was the direction from which the smoke was coming. It became uncomfortably silent in the car. We pulled down the road, and I hurried into the school. As I turned to run out the door with the kids, the school staff became aware of the problem. There was a wall of flames moving across the field. The security guards began to unroll the hoses and as calmly as I could, I ran the kids to the car. Our driver ran to meet me, grabbed their backpacks and calmly but forcibly shoved them in the car. With the promise of an ice cream cone, they were happy to oblige a quick getaway. We drove away as several fire hoses sprayed into the flames. I still do not know what happened at the school, but I feel confident that there was plenty of time to evacuate the children and that more than likely, they were able to extinguish the fire before it reached the building.

I put on my dark glasses and cried tears of both fear and relief as the boys rattled on about their day totally unaware of the danger that was behind them.

Fires can happen anywhere, though they are more likely to happen in a city that routinely burns it's trash on the side of the dry, dusty road, but in the United States we have an infrastructure that makes us feel safe. It does in actuality keep us safer than in many other areas of the world, and for that we should be grateful. Things like fire trucks and smoke alarms and the emergency broadcast system make us feel secure. They make me feel secure. If something bad happens, we have backup. It makes me place my trust in firefighters, in technology, in three precious little numbers like 911.

It is no secret to anyone that I would rather not be here. I don't want my kids to be going to a school called wecare daycare that is situated next to a now charred field. I want to be back where everything is familiar and "safe." But we are here, and we are here under God's sovereignty and love just as we were in Dallas.

I read the following last night in Skip Ryan's book, "That You May Believe."

"It is not just that God by His Sovereign grace allows difficult circumstances and people in order to refine our character. Perhaps more importantly from the Lord's point of view, He allows difficult people and difficult circumstances into our lives to refine our worship. God wants our character to be honed and shaped; but even more, He wants our worship to be honed and shaped."

Being here has helped me to better understand God's worthiness of our worship. Having less "stuff" in which to place my trust has allowed me to see His power more clearly.

Even though I don't want them to, Samuel and Everett are going to go back to school on Monday morning. Tonight we will thank the God who protected our children today. Though we struggle, we will believe, by faith, that He orchestrates all, for our good and for His glory.

And we will worship.