Saturday, April 19

Tulips and Tuesday!



I bet you do the same thing I do every morning; you get up and go about your normal routine; whatever it may be. I don’t find myself thinking… ‘well I wonder if something out of the ordinary will happen today”, do you? However, I do always pray to remember that the Lord is Sovereign over every event. I need to remember that, especially when the day is filled with difficult work or trying circumstances. So it was on Tuesday. I was off to work early and the only thing I noticed was that it was extremely windy, one of those bad hair days we call them.

As it turned out, there was something out of the ordinary happening that day, a fire! It started several miles west of us and as we looked out the west door of the bank after lunch and saw some smoke, it didn’t seem like much. Little did we know that it was traveling quickly and had already gone north of us. We got a call around 2:45 that we were to evacuate the town and I hurried home loaded my husband, my dog, my cat, my strong box and my bible in the car. My family was right there to help me and as I backed out of the driveway, I saw the flames for the first time, just two blocks north of our home. It is a strange sensation to see fire that close to your home and drive away not knowing what you will find upon your return. My plea……………help us Lord. My niece works at the feedlot east of town and we spent about four hours there and watched as they saved the house right across the highway twice.

When it was apparent that we weren’t going to be going back to town that night, we went to a friend’s house to spend the night. I can’t express in words the thoughts and emotions that whirled around in me that afternoon and that are still there. I’ve been in several major blizzards and living in California as I was growing up I’ve experienced an earthquake or two. Fire seems somehow different and I don’t think I will ever forget the day.

Two volunteer firemen lost their lives, there was at last count 8 homes that were destroyed, 16 other buildings, corrals, numerous livestock, beloved pets and wildlife were overtaken by the fires. There are many stories, much grieving but a spirit of help and compassion that the Lord always seems to cause, by His good providence, among people after tragedies such as these.

He spared my home and that is where the tulip comes in. We were able to come home on Wednesday as electricity had been restored and as we drove up the driveway there it was, the tulip. It wasn’t blooming on Tuesday and so it was just like a welcome home from the Lord to me and I thanked Him as I shed some tears. I don’t know why the Lord moved the fires the way He did, why He took some homes, some lives and spared so many. I can only praise Him.

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