...trials by fire....

That particular morning, I was thirteen years old. It was early, and a Saturday. There was no school, and I was watching cartoons with my little sister. We were eating cinnamon toast, it was burned, but it was all I knew how to cook. The rest of the family was asleep. Out of nowhere, the kitchen door busted open, and a strange man came charging in. He was screaming, "FIRE! FIRE! GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!" In our pajamas, my sister and I run out of the house to his shouts, "GO NEXT DOOR...CALL 911!" I ran to my next door neighbors house and was banging on the door, I turned around, looked up, and saw smoke billowing from the attic vent on the side of the house. I could smell the acrid smoke, and feel it choking me. I heard a soft roaring coming from the house. We all ran across the street. I was met there by my mother, my step-dad, my sister, and my....wait....where was my brother? My mom was screaming for him, and as I turned to look, he was running back to the house. He came out with our dog, a small chihuahua named Baby. We were all safe and sound, and the fire department was on it's way. That was the easy part...getting out. The hard part was standing there with our friends and neighbors watching our memories go up in flames. My mom crumpled to her knees. She was weeping over all her pictures, her baby clothes, and all the things she had collected over the years. The three of us stood behind her in shock, wondering why this was happening. My brother had only some shorts on, none of us had any shoes. My mom was still in her nightgown. We watched as the flames began to come through the roof, and climb into the sky. Where were the fire trucks? We lived less than a mile from the station. It couldn't have been more than ten minutes that we waited, but it seemed like an eternity. During those minutes I was trying to think if there was anything in there that I wanted to cry and weep like mom about. I thought of my room, and I thought of my clothes. They were all hand-me-downs. Then, I realized that in my room, were my brand new pom-poms, and my dance team uniform. I FREAKED OUT! Do you know how many candy bars we had to sell just to afford those things? Looking at my house burning, suddenly, that's all I could think about. So silly looking back, now, I mean we were all safe, and things worked out fine. In those moments, however, I was selfishly thinking only how I was going to be effected, and not comforting my mom. The fire trucks came, put out the fire, and soaked the whole house with water. What wasn't burned was destroyed with water or smoke damage. It was a total loss. My mom had, in her wisdom, maintained home owners insurance. This allowed us to rebuild in the next few months, and to make it through until then. Have you ever felt like you had lost everything? It is a desperate and hard situation to be in. Today I want to say that God is longing to help you through your loss. All you have to do is call out to Him. He is patiently waiting for you to invite Him into the situation. He will restore you, and rebuild you, and it will stand for eternity. Our God uses our trials like fire. They burn off the things that we don't need, and with all that is left, He rebuilds us. This time, however, we have been tried, and purified by the fire of our trials. If there is one lesson I learned from the fire that day, it is that you can start over. With God, all things are possible...you can rebuild.