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Eye on the World: a healing response to fiery conditions
Heat waves across much of the northern hemisphere. Huge thunderstorms (with accompanying loss of power) in the eastern US. Wildfires burning in Arizona’s wilderness and across Colorado’s Front Range, where one blaze has destroyed more than 700 homes and buildings and forced thousands of evacuations. How can we respond in the face of such hostile, even dangerous, weather conditions?
Prayer is more than just a “feel-good” response in situations like these. Yes, prayer removes fear and makes us more receptive to God’s guidance, which keeps us safe – but it also reveals that fires and other destructive conditions aren’t something natural to be accepted, and can’t separate anyone from the love of God. In “A haven during the Colorado wildfires,” the author, a native of Colorado Springs, writes, “The Scriptures are full of the power of God that supersedes material forces. The prophet Elijah was so afraid of the danger threatening him that he hid in a cave. But God called him to come out, stand on the mount, and discover that power is not in the destruction of earthquake, wind, and fire, but in the ‘still small voice’ (I Kings 19:12).”
That “still small voice” is speaking to spiritual thinkers everywhere. “Colorado wildfires – what can we do?” offers inspired counsel for praying not only about conditions in the southwestern US, but about “natural” disasters of all forms. The author shares an experience in which prayer kept her neighborhood safe and provided impetus for productivity after a hurricane swept through her area.
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