As By Fire

         They made us get out of the house. Evacuate, they said. What do you save when there is no time to think? Get the important papers. Get the wedding pictures. No time to save anything! I looked around at all that might be ashes the next time I stood there.

         The fires were raging on the mountain behind the road. There was nothing to do but run for our lives while we still could.

         Get in the car. Take one last look at the house we dreamed of and labored and sacrificed to own. Remember all we did to make it beautiful, to make it home. With a pang I remembered the happy day we moved in. Walking through the rooms, the rooms where we planned to raise our family and live happy ever after.

         This is when I began to think of what really matters, of the fragility of our lives, how ephemeral things really are. I saw the pain in my husband’s eyes mirroring my own. “Let’s go,” he said. As we drove away I could almost imagine I felt the heat of the wildfire on my back.

         I was thinking of a song they used to sing: “How fragile we are!” How easily the things we spent a lifetime to acquire can be gone in a moment. By tomorrow morning it could all be gone forever. There was insurance, we could build another house, get more things. But I would never forget this night and God’s warning not to lay up treasures here in this world but set our hearts on things eternal.

         We reached the school building where we were to shelter for the night, the longest night of my life.

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