Fire Starter

I recently talked with a friend from the Northwestern United States.  Up there they deal with forest fires on a pretty regular basis, particularly during the dry months.  In our discussion, my friend mentioned an interesting fact about fires that start from lightning strikes.  After hearing about the phenomena, I could not shake the impression that the Holy Spirit wanted to reveal a spiritual equivalent for our edification.  Here’s what I got:

When lightning strikes a tree, electricity and heat will travel through the trunk of the tree into the roots and into the ground.  The traversing of the strike will sometimes cause what is called a “holdover fire”.  With this type of fire, time will elapse between the strike and when a fire is evident.  During this holdover time, the effects of the lightning strike causes a “creeping” fire that slowly burns within the tree.  This fire will eventually break forth from the tree and its roots to spread to surrounding trees. Thus the firestorm begins.  

A number of factors cause holdover fire from a lightning strike, such as the rainfall during the storm when the strike occurred, the conditions after the storm and the type of tree which is struck.  It is interesting that with such a traumatic event as a lightning strike, a tree may appear unharmed and no apparent danger of fire may exist from the viewpoint of an outsider. Yet within the tree itself there is definitely some serious changes taking place.

So what is the spiritual lesson in the holdover fire?   

Being a believer in Jesus, the Son of the living God, does not in anyway relieve you or me from the trauma this world, and life in general, dishes out.  In fact, it could be argued that our belief in God actually increases the likelihood of trauma and trial in our lives. But God is faithful. Trials cannot destroy Him and they will not be allowed to destroy us.  But this does not mean that we are unaffected by trauma. Like a lightning strike to a tree, trauma has a way of changing things on the inside. Sometimes this may not be apparent to the outsider. But there is something going on deep within the person who has experienced great pain and trial.  

Just like that holdover fire, the pain from the traumatic event will smolder and burn within.  Now, for unbelievers, without the hope and faith to understand that God loves them and cares for them, this smoldering fire can be absolutely destructive, taking every ounce of life out of the person and only leaving a burned out shell.  But to a believer, while the pain will be just as intense, there is the knowledge that God is at work. He has not left and will not leave His child. He is there and even more than that, He is taking over the fire. So the trauma that was intended to destroy, is turned into a consuming fire that is intended to grow and fill the believer with power.  In His timing and according to His purpose, God will allow that fire to break forth, revealing within the believer a strength that was not evident before. But this revelation is not only intended for the believer who experienced the trauma. God, in His grace and wisdom, applies a high degree of exponentiality to the power of the fire so that it illuminates the lives of those who see it and spreads the fire of God’s glory to others and then to others and so on.  

There is no limit to the power of God.  There is no limit in His ability to turn what was meant to destroy into something glorious!