Cape Town experienced one of the most devastating veld fires a few weeks ago. It raged for days over a vast area of the Southern Peninsula. A family drive-out yesterday took us along the route where the fire had roared for days.
The "moonscape" is visible from a long way off. What is of signifigance is how close the the fire had come to dwellings and how lives were affected. Vast swathes of mountainside has become sandy wasteland. The normally beautiful green landscape has become a blackened scene of unbelievable devastation.
As we drive along the winding mountain pass the we see more and more signs of life rising up amidst the ruin. Green leaves seem to be popping up in the most unlikeliest of places. Mother nature has taken control and and started restoring herself to the former beauty. We are told it may take years. Yet one thing is sure. The beauty WILL be restored.
Our lives are often devastated by raging fires. We are challenged by circumstances that destroy our dreams and desires and proverbially force us to change direction. All we see from one end of the horizon to the other is utter devastation. Smoke clouds our vision and our eyes drown in tears as we try and make sense of the ashes and embers that surround us.
As Mother nature is able to rise again, we too can rise from the ashes. When the smoke has cleared and the tears are gone, we are able to see the green leaves rising from the scorched earth of our lives. Yes it may take years. It may even need a complete turn around strategy. In nature these fires need to burn. So too it is in life. The fires need to burn for new life to rise from the ashes.
Let the fires burn. We have a God given power in us to Rise From The Ashes.
