My good friend Tami shared a story with me that I just have to share! She is an amazing woman who courageously lives her faith out loud.   Her bold grace inspires me to grow deeper in loving God and loving people. 

Each fall Tami and her husband, Jeff, collect the dead plants on their property and toss them on a burn pile. It’s the end of a season. The plants have served their purpose.  At the appointed time, they set this mountain of debris ablaze and watch violent flames roar to the sky.  Radiant heat smacks their cheeks, reducing the vegetation to dust. The pile smolders and smokes for days, leaving behind layer upon layer of dead ash.

Raging fires speak of scorching heat, blazing destruction, and the inferno of suffering. For most of us, life holds a few fiery furnaces along the way. These are the places where the very things that give life meaning and joy suddenly disappear in black clouds of smoke and ash.  Circumstances dramatically change.  A deep relationship is severed.  Health abruptly fails. Friends walk away.  Dreams fall apart.  An unshakable empty sadness descends. 

Unexpected fires singe and sear our soul.  And we wonder. . . What if I had done this? . . . If only I had done that. . .  Why doesn’t God tip over the water jars of heaven and douse this miserable heat?!

Young mothers, widows, exploited professionals, childless couples, demoralized parents, isolated singles, devalued spouses, and those who are forced to relocate or retire, know the blistering heat of the burn piles of life.

What do you do?  Where do you turn? What happens to hope when life seems like a never ending mountain of gray cinders, without so much as a hint of color on the horizon?

Something amazing caught Tami’s eye on her way past the burn pile last spring. A beautiful green acorn squash plant sat gingerly atop the ash heap.  No one planted it. No one planned for it.  No one tended to it.  Having survived the fiery inferno and the bitter freeze of winter, it was obviously the healthiest plant on their property! Over nine acorn squash were thriving on its young green trailers.  

What was Tami’s takeaway? Never underestimate the potential of a seed buried deep in ash. Fires that seems relentless create perfect soil for new life to emerge.

Years ago I was sitting smack dab in the middle of an ash heap, feeling as dead and gray as my surroundings.  Fumbling around in the smoky rubble I discovered a hopeful reminder:

“…the Lord who created you says, ‘Do not be afraid—I will save you.
I have called you by name—you are mine.
2 When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you;
your troubles will not overwhelm you.
When you pass through fire, you will not be burned;
the hard trials that come will not hurt you.
3 For I am the Lord your God…’ ”  Isaiah 43:1-3, GNT

What was my takeaway?

Note to self:   Pam, when the perplexing flames of life scorch your soul, raise your fears exponentially, and threaten to reduce you to ash, remember. . . God is at work in you on a deeper level than the eye can see.  He makes this promise:

My end in not death.

It is always life.

                                                           I am the Author of Life.         

God, today I choose to believe that You will keep your promise.