It was our first year living in the Southern California area and we didn’t expect a warm welcoming to be with our first ever-wild fire! We moved here from the damp, lush, absorbent land of Washington state. We were clueless of the true and ever present reality of how dry and desert like this part of California really is. We had always heard or seen and read about SoCal’s wild fires but didn’t really think about it when we decided to move here; “oh that wouldn’t happen where we are moving”, we thought to ourselves.
I remember the morning very well. There was talk on the news about the Santa Ana winds picking up the night before. We weren’t living here long enough to even know what that meant.There was also the talk of possible fires since the temperature was well into the high 90’s and there was the treat of high winds to travel into our area, but being clueless and not educated and being new here we didn’t relate a threat to our personal lives at all. All of us sleeping like babies and it was 5am on a Tuesday morning we are jolted out of bed to our feet by an officer on a loud speaker megaphone saying “YOU HAVE 15 MINUTES TO GET OUT OF YOUR HOUSES AND THIS IS A MANDATORY EVACUATION…YOU CAN GATHER YOUR FAMILY, YOU PETS AND A FEW IMPORTANT ITEMS AND GET OUT OF YOUR HOMES IMMEDIATELY” This was the fire department of course and we were innocent Washingtonians. This was a very scary moment for my family as we didn’t know the true threat to us personally and we were taking this evacuation seriously.
We began the process of gathering first the boys; second the pets (which by the way included a dog, a cat, a frog and 2 birds) were all piled into the white Ford F-150. Next, was the part I wasn’t prepared for at all. My loving and wonderful, hardworking husband starts to gather all the computers (which we had 2, along with the printers, the scanners, the file documents and hard drives), taking not one, not two but three to four trips back to the house while parts of our town near us was up in flames! We decided to bring as much into the truck as humanly possible! We were so naïve! We loaded up this truck we pull out of the house and what do we see on our street? All of our neighbors are sitting in front of their garages in lawn chairs! Yes, you heard me! They were kicking back acting like this was a parade to sit and watch, we were very confused and actually felt a sense of embarrassment as we took a glance at the truck and the spectacle we were creating! Being that these sweet neighbors were actually Southern California Natives, we took a moment to ask them why they were not evacuating and taking off out of there for dear life. The answer was surprising and has stuck with me for now, 8 years. They said they are staying to “protect their assets.”
I fully understand why these people wanted to stay to protect their assets and I don’t want to make a big issue out of that. But it makes me think of what is an asset to you and what do you and I value that we would literally protect with our own lives and risk our lives for? Is it a car, the paint on your house, a recent couch you purchased or new carpeting? What is it that would make you do as our neighbors did and dismiss the mandatory evacuation the officers and fire department were issuing? Or, what if there was a different natural disaster and you couldn’t stay and guard what you deem as precious to you and your life was at risk and you had no time or chance to make a decision. What would you do? In the dictionary an “asset” is “A resource with economic value that an individual, corporation or country owns or controls with the expectation that it will provide future benefit.
In Matthew 6:19 it says in the bible “ Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
I know we need to be prepared for all natural disasters like a fire, earthquake, flood, tsunami, or hurricane and we need to have our special things and items or treasures well kept and secured tightly for our reach. However, it is the grasping onto, the holding, and the cherishing that was so surprising to me and my family as we watched the people refuse to leave and vacate for the protection of their lives and family. This scripture tells us so much. Jesus is speaking in these verses and it says it all. We need to be prepared spiritually beyond all else in this life. If we pack light for the journey, we will have less to carry out.
In Matthew 16:26 it also says, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his own soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? Also, 1 Timothy 6:7 says “For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it “ If these are true, which we know that God’s word is truth, then we have to take the time daily to reevaluate our lives to see where we are putting in our energy, our money, and time. We have this one life, let’s make an impact for what really matters and learn to let go and hold more loosely to those ‘things’ in our homes and open up wider the treasures in our hearts.
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