The Refiner's Fire

Around this time nine years ago, my home state of Arizona was ablaze with the Rodeo-Chediski Fire. The summer sky was consistently overcast, but not with clouds of rain. There was no rain. Just smoke.

I remember my dad telling those of us who still lived at home that there was a chance--however slight--that we would have to leave our home to escape the path of the fire. He asked each of us in turn what precious belongings we would take with us if we had to evacuate. I mentally went over every item I owned. I wanted to take everything. My books, my violin, my

dance shoes and leotards, my old journals, my knick-knacks, writing projects, photo albums, absolutely everything. I told my dad that and he let me know that we wouldn't have room for all of those things, and that we could only take the most important things we owned. To my twelve-year-old self, all those things seemed important, they were all a part of my daily life and my past and wanted them with me in the future. But I decided that the only thing I truly needed in my life and that I would take with me if we had to leave were my scriptures.

Now the Wallow Fire {as it has been dubbed} is currently burning again in my corner of the state. The loveliest part of Arizona will soon be nothing but stubble. I'm not there to witness the smoke, the evacuees, or any of it. But it's very real. Once again I have had to think about losing my home to fire. The fire is still quite far away from my hometown, but too close for comfort I should say. I would love to just pick up my whole house and move it to keep it safe, or better yet, stop the fire. But if I do lose my home, it's just a thing. As long as my family and friends are safe, that's all that really matters. And I have my scriptures with me, and that's all I would take. Of course, I would hate to lose everything, our family pictures, our mountains or books, all the family history my mom has collected, and all the things we have treasure as a family, but they really are just things.

As I have been praying over the past week {and praying hard}, I have had to wonder if this fire is what God has willed for us. We have prayed and fasted as individuals, families, and communities that the fire will be able to be controlled and eventually stopped, that rain will come, and the wind will cease to fan the flames. But what if that isn't what God's will is for us? I do not think that we should stop praying that the fire will end, but maybe we should include that we will learn from this fire what it is the Lord has planned for us. Maybe it's to finally bring us together as a community as we unite in service to each other. Maybe it's to learn to not put so much store on the temporal items in our lives, no matter how beloved they may be.

"Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is" {1 Corinthians 3:13}.

"That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ" {1 Peter 1:7}.

"When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee" {Isaiah 43:2}.