The fires of summer have destroyed La Veta Pass.   Eden beauty incinerated.  The fires this season spread and pop up like measles all over the western states. News came they have engulfed the home of friends.  Nothing left but smoldering ash.  The air is thick with smoke this morning; no deep breaths can be drawn today.  The view is obscured by haze.

Fires take all forms and shapes and sizes in our lives.  We cannot at times help but choke on what was meant to be clean fresh air but has become ash filled oxygen.  Our family is currently walking through heavy losses that weigh our hearts down.  Tears come frequently.

I have sent my husband fishing.  A gift. A guided trip.  Scheduled weeks in advance.  A time of respite and joy is now to be had under a canopy heavy with burning.  Will the perfect fly find the hungry mouth of a wild brown trout sleek with the markings of a leopard? Will he be able to enjoy the freedom and beauty of the perfect cast thirty years in the making with loss heavy on his heart?  Will the water be clear enough for the fish to rise? Will the ministry of Jesus be able to break through the smoky haze that surrounds life right now?

Fresh, clean, deep breaths are meant to be ours for the taking.  Even when licking flames have drawn too close.  Even if the water that was meant to be clear has become muddy. Because of Jesus.

He is the friend of fishermen.

He is the source of clear, Living Water.

His Spirit is the wind that clears the air of all harming debris.

He has rescued the faithful from fires that destroy.  Just ask Meshach when you meet him.  Jesus has rescued my heart from flames that would like to engulf many times.  So many times.

We live in a fiery and dangerous world.  Jesus doesn’t just fight them, He overpowers them.  He is victorious over them.  They can destroy what we can see but they cannot touch what we cannot.  The weighty eternal world of the unseen is a balm of unending truth and beauty to our lives covered with ash.  

Loss is real.  But so is the resurrection.

The Grand Restoration is coming.  Jesus IS coming.  He is coming on His white steed one day.  The horn will sound.  It will friends.  Take heart. And Jesus is coming today to the scorched earth of our souls that need Him so desperately.

Jesus is faithful to rescue. To intervene.  To heal.  To restore. Oh praise Him my soul.   Our God creates beauty from ashes.

From Isaiah 61: 1-3

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners,[a]
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
3     and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
    instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
    instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
    instead of a spirit of despair.

Do you need Him to come? Then ask Him to come.  Ask Him to come.  Ask Him to come for you.