Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
While driving to Idyllwild, I was taken aback to see the amount of devastation that the recent fires had caused.
What was once beautiful, lush, tree covered terrain was now barren wasteland.
It was a sad sight to see.
I continued on, seeing more of the black, charred earth and dead, spindly twigs- remnants of what was once beautiful, rich green and red manzanita bushes, grasses and forests of oak and pine trees.
And then I rounded another corner. Below is a melted version of what I saw, as I thought to take the picture with my new cell phone the next day. But I hit a hillside like this, which, although still scorched and stripped of it's trees and former beauty, was transformed by a blanket of sparkling newfallen snow. Wow! I thought, it's amazing the way snow can change everything. It turned burnt ashes into a thing of wonder! The dead, black twigs were now sparkling, shining white whisps against a clear, blue sky.
It was all covered!
I thought about how the earth was going to soak up the water and the new life would come, about how I learned in Geology that the burnt ashes of the fires actually helped to enrich the soil, causing new, healthy trees and plants to grow.
And it struck me how very much like our God this whole thing was. He who brings beauty out of ashes. He who covers us when we've been devastated by life's disaster. He who washes away our sins, making us whiter than snow, by the power of His sinless death.
He is the one who can transform, change, bring good out of evil, and most of all- by some miracle that He displays again and again in all of creation; He, and He alone, can bring life out of death.
No wonder the angels ripped open the sky the night He was born, and proclaimed the Good News, Glory to God in the Highest and on earth, Peace to men of good will.
