Fire on the Mountain

I will never forget my first year in SA!  It was such a beautiful and sharp learning curve for my naïveté.  Most afternoons were spent at kids club in Capricorn, and I began learning Afrikaans...mostly through songs.  One in particular, called "fire on the mountain" made all the kids go wild.
"There's a fire on the mountain, RUN RUN RUN RUN!! Daars a feer op de berg, HARLOOP HARLOOP HARLOOP HARLOOP!!" (Please excuse the spelling which is wrong I'm sure!) ...we sang it on repeat and all the kids would run around like wild animals, burning energy so they could sit still for the Bible study to come.

Well, that song is popular for a reason, and that reason is fires on the mountain are a real thing here in SA.  Today as I walked home from a late day at work, I noticed smoke and helicopters toward my flat,  I got there to see that the mountain behind our house is on fire!  About 15 little fires burning out of control.
Our flat is the top right doors and windows.  Behind us the mountain smokes.

Outside our bedroom window, fire helicopters transport 100 liter bags of water from a local reservoir to the fire.  Simon and I walked to the library where we had a good view of the action.  With the Fish Hoek beach/ocean moments to our left, we were amazed that the helipcopters instead chose a small body of water to collect from.  In these photos you see multiple helicopters working together to put the fire out.  These shots are both taken from our bedroom window.
Fires are scary to me.  As a child I had a standard prayer to God : "please protect me from strangers, robbers, fire and rain."  Clearly some experience with fire left me terrified of it's power to destroy.  But the amazing thing about fires on the mountains of South Africa is that the local vegetation (fynbos) only releases it's seeds in extreme heat/fire, and so fire is necessary for the plant to grow.  Fynbos is unlike anything I've seen--it's beautiful! It's strong and thick and rugged and wild.  And it grows under pressure! 

I am blessed to live in a beautiful corner of Gods green earth, and today I watched as this age old story unfolded of death and life.  And it reminded me of one of my favorite verses: "praise be to The Lord, for he showed his wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city". (Psalm 31:21)

Life sometimes feels like a besieged city I am stuck in, and today's excitement was symbolic of the season I am in.  Lots Of little fires.  When one gets put out, another one pops up.  And the process of putting them out is as repetitive asa helicopter   flying back and forth to fetch water and dump it on the mountain--by faith I have to keep doing the things I know will put out my fires even when it's repetitive and feels like it's not making a difference.  Hard work, even when I can't see past the smoke.  I must persevere until peace is restored.  

My friend Jill always tells me God is not just the God of Good Friday.  He's also the God of resurrection Sunday!  There is always a resurrection, a light at the end of the tunnel, a dawn after the dark night, a beautiful fynbos bush coming to life after the ravages of a mountain fire.

As I type this, the town is quite, the fires are embering into nothing, and peace has been restored.  God shows His love to us always.  He is our Rescuer.

Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 25, 2014 at 12:19 AM

    I read and enjoyed.
    Having seen the mountains behind you home and having tried to walk through SA mountain trails lined with Fynbos, I appreciated your analogies. Thanks for taking me on the mountain again.

    ReplyDelete

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