Tears Mingled with Ashes

Still even as I write this the surge of emotion that grabs my throat is overwhelming! When you feel as though you have seen “the face of God” so to speak. Or that God has been very “Real” in a message, it astounds me! He most recently spoke very clearly that He wants me & my family to stay on in this world for now. He must still have work for us to do!

This is what happened: I needed to buy fabric for some quilts and our family decided to go up to Franklin, TN (about 1 ½ hours from our home) to Hobby Lobby last Monday night. We were not on the road ½ an hour before it began to storm on us. And I mean storm!! Lightning bolts like crazy, jumping thunder. Rain so hard we drove at a near crawl much of the way with my husband leaning forward to see out the windshield. I did not know it but later only to be told there were Tornado warnings out! I believe it! We did make it to the store, completed our task and drove home the same way in the midst of this severe storm! When we got home we went right to bed being very exhausted after such a wearisome trip!

The next morning at about 4:45 am, I got up and began fixing coffee. Only the strangest thing, the pot would not work. So after fiddling with it, I called my husband to check it out. Being a man he simply unplugged it and plugged it into another outlet and turned it on!! (I laughed at the simplicity). But then he went to the fuse box to check things out. Noticing a switch had been thrown, he flipped it back on. Immediately the bottom of our little freezer caught fire, sizzled and went out! Of course I was screaming by then for my husband to come!

When he came to see the freezer, he said you are not going to believe this. I too walked over to it. There was ash all up the entire wall behind it. Covering the decorations above it. As he pulled it out a bit, all my cookbooks which I had on top against the wall, were burnt on the edges and some backs. Ash was all over the stuff I had on top. Plus as I walked around I noticed it on all the wall decorations around the room. As well as across most of the table and chairs. The wall was black behind the freezer. WOW! What do you say? We were astonished.
At first we thought it had happened while we had been gone. But since we did not go into the kitchen but straight to bed, we did not know. But soon after my husband left for work, I was blowing my nose and a good amount of black soot came out. That could only mean one thing. That during the night as I slept in the recliner (which is right next to the kitchen) that fire had happened while we were sleeping! I was in the recliner due to a bad hip & back I can only usually sleep no more than 4 hours in the bed so often I get up and sleep in the living room for a bit. That is a scary thing! It had to have been bad to do such damage.

My husband still suspects that a lightening bolt must have hit close by and a surge of electricity went to the closest thing on—which was the freezer! It caught fire and burned. As my husband cleaned it up—which was a mess. He showed me the holes in the wood floor when the fire had literally burned deep holes. As well as the part that did not come off the baseboard. He also had to clean the back of the freezer some just so it would not get on him! He looked at the elements which had completely melted down!

What a sobering thing. What a sobering thought. Yes, there is no “earthly” reason we are here today. That I would be alive to type this is a miracle! But evidently there WAS a “Heavenly” reason that our house did not burn down to the ground and taken all of us with it! As I wiped down the counters, table, chairs, decorations, other things in the kitchen that had ashes, all I could do is cry! Oh Lord that You should spare me my life or that I would be spared and not my husband or children??!! I can not fathom! Nor to watch all my memories and pictures be destroyed (which is a smaller thing by far!) But that is what happened. Yes tears mingled with ashes as I cried my heart’s gratitude of being spared such a horrific event. I did not complain to clean so much. I can not clean my cookbooks. But they will ever serve as a reminder of how closed to “cooked” we almost became.

What does God have for us to still do??? I do not know. But my attention He has and I shall be ready to anything He shall ask. As I reflected on that night………………I shivered as I thought,

I have been redeemed from “The Fire” of Eternal Damnation.
Snatched from the flames of Hell.
Was that night not a shuddering visual of my own redemption!