No Time Like the Present

Armageddon!
Apocalypse!
A fiery end!

These are some of the descriptors the TV folks are using to describe the terrible, terrible devastation being caused in Southern California by the wildfires, aided and abetted by the extremely dry and strong Santa Ana winds.

And indeed, it almost seems to be like the language used in the Bible about the end days.

One family loses everything, the next family interviewed managed to save all that was valuable. The wind blows embers on to one house causing a fire that completely destroys that house, while neighboring houses are spared, and are still standing. People are literally fleeing for their lives, turning to sports arenas for housing, to strangers for assistance, to outsiders for help. And the scenes at night show fires burning out of control, while firefighters battle fatigue as well as flames.

Armageddon!
Apocalypse!
A fiery end!

But rather than some folks being left behind, people are risking their lives to make sure everyone is evacuated. Rather than armies waging war against one another, people that might not speak on the street are reaching out to one another with food, with shelter, with water, with hope. Instead of some folks mysteriously disappearing in an instant, people are appearing from all over the country to offer their gifts, their talents, their lives to others.

Maybe we are being reminded that when the end times come, they will provide the opportunity, not to pat ourselves on the back because we are Christian, but to break our backs in serving those whose lives, whose hearts, whose spirits have been broken by life.

(c) 2007 Thom M. Shuman