O God, our times are in your hands: For a Birthday, p. 830, BCP
Rarely have I been forced to trust more completely in this most basis tenet of our faith than this past week. The Holiday Farm fire has devastated our beloved McKenzie Valley. It pains me to even imagine driving through this valley that for as long as I've lived in Oregon I’ve considered one of the most beautiful anywhere. Vastly more important than scenery, of course, is the fact that this conflagration caught the residents of Blue River completely by surprise Labor Day evening, forcing them to flee for their lives leaving their homes to the flames. This extraordinarily rapidly moving fire continued through the night and the next day to roar through towns further down river that are home to members of St. Mary’s as well as friends I’ve known as long as I’ve lived in Oregon. Add to that the fact that my brother and his family had to evacuate because their home was in a Level 3 evacuation area and I trust you understand the free floating anxiety that has plagued me lately.
Thankfully the fire did slow dramatically in day four, so as I write this it appears my brother’s neighborhood will remain untouched. However that doesn’t change the fact that thousands of people up and down the west coast are currently unable to return home, and a certain proportion of those people have no home to which to return. So where is God in all this? Turning to my deepest understanding of God, which is that God is the force we call Love, God is everywhere in the midst of this tragic situation. God is there in the outpouring of supplies for those who have had to evacuate, often coming from people who don’t have a great deal to spare, but who share what they have anyway. God provides the strength for the round the clock efforts of those actively fighting the fire in our area as well as all the others, risking their lives to save people they’ve never met as they also struggle to save homes. God is present in the hearts of people who have offered hospitality to family, friends, and even strangers and their animals, any of God’s creatures who need a place to be. All of that is the Love that is God in action.
It is impossible to imagine how history will remember 2020. Clearly it has been a year of extraordinary challenges. Just when we think we may have turned a corner on one problem it seems like we’re facing another. But the key is that it isn’t you or I who is confronting these problems alone, rather WE are facing them together, and together, by God’s grace and with God’s help, we will find our way through.
