As we checked out of the hotel Monday morning, we were beginning to get a glimpse of the terrible toll these fires were taking. Evacuees were arriving to check in looking tired, wearing breathing masks, and carrying everything that was important to them. We hit the road as soon as possible and met more evacuees on the jammed freeway out of town. Traffic was terrible, everything reeked of smoke, and the sky ahead had an ominous look to it.
As we labored on through the traffic, Christie tried to call her sister, who lives in San Marcos just north of San Diego. We had spent a day with Carol and her husband at their beautiful house on the way down to the conference. How things change in just a few short days. Christie didn't get a hold of Carol, but we assumed the best and kept driving.
Oddly enough, the traffic broke free as we drove under a cloud so dark we had to use our headlights at 10:30 in the morning. Traffic remained relatively clear until we met the next fire in Irvine. This fire was very close to the freeway and, disturbingly enough, set intentionally after the area had been hit by 10 or so fires. It frightens me that some one would deliberately set a fire when resources were already stretched so thin, but I guess that's the point.
When we stopped for lunch, the smoke was quite thick. You could feel the pressure of it in your lungs and head. We were glad to be on the road again, but knew there were still several fires ahead of us. Thankfully none were close enough to cause traffic problems. We arrived safely in Thousand Oaks and saw the damage the wind had done here. It was remarkable. Some streets looked like war zones. If the smoke from the fires wasn't bad enough, our city was dealing with gale force winds that flipped wooden tables (Christie's parents'), destroyed gates (my parents'), and left this across the entrance to our street:
The tree didn't fall, it splintered.
The winds were so fierce, and the tree apparently so weak, that it just splintered all the branches off the trunk. Thankfully, I knew how to get in from the other side of our street (that is a bigger feat than may seem) and we were able to pull into our very own garage after a surreal drive home.
Soon after arriving, we discovered that Carol and Scott had actually been evacuated from their house at 3:00am on Monday. They were able to stay with some friends close by who were not affected by the fires. They were given the OK to return to their house on Tuesday, but chose to wait a little while, only to be told that their area had been re-evacuated. Their home is in a brand new development with open spaces all around, so they would definitely be susceptible to a wildfire.
Now, Carol and Scott have returned to their home. Landscape crews and homeowners have started picking up the pieces. The tree is now a stump. The weather seems to have turned in the firefighters' favor. And it looks like Southern California will survive another bout of wind and fire. Now my parents just need to figure out what to do with their gate that was, literally, blown to bits.
But for many people, rebuilding won't happen for a long time. Nearly 1500 homes have been destroyed, many more damaged, not to mention the businesses and other buildings that have been destroyed. Now they face the real struggle, trying to get their lives back. I can't even imagine the painstaking process they will have to go through.
All of this got me thinking about where we find our security. Is our security found in our homes? Our families? Our jobs? All of these things can be gone in the blink of an eye, or the gust of a particularly dry and vicious wind. We like to think that we are safe and secure in our nice homes with all of our stuff around us, but we really are no more secure than a homeless person sleeping in the gutter. Unfortunately, thousands of people just found that out this week.
In Luke 12:10-21, Jesus tells the story of the rich fool. The rich fool decided that he had so much stuff that he needed to build a huge barn to house it all and then retire happy. But as he finished building this monument to his wealth, God came to him and said,"You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you." (verse 20). How much time and energy do we spend on making ourselves feel secure, only to discover that true security can only be found in the eternal God. Imagine what your life would be like if you spent that same amount of time and energy devoted to God. I know my life would look very different.
And, please, don't forget to pray for the victims of these fires and the firefighters who are completely exhausted, but still valiantly battling the blazes around southern California.
