Giving Thanks to our Deliverer, on Thanksgiving, for Deliverance from the Fire

 

We had a grass fire occur on Thanksgiving Day.  My Dad was doing a bonfire and went in the woods for a few minutes, my brothers decided to check on the fire.  When they got there, it was spreading not just a little bit but past the pit all over the grass! We have about 100 acres of woods right next to our house, our bonfire is about twenty-five feet away from the treeline.  By the time my Dad came and saw what that my brothers were trying to put it out (with rakes, never use rakes! It fans the flames) it was about 18 inches from the trees! 

I had no idea this was going on until my littlest brother Jordan came running up to the house screaming "We need more water! We need buckets!"

My mom, (quick thinking) ran our double-size hose up to where the fire was burning and I filled and refilled buckets as fast as I possibly could while my dad and brothers ran into the smoke and poured on the fire closest to the treeline first.  Mom called the Fire Department, but we waited for 30 minutes and they never did end up coming anyway because they said it wasn't an emergency if we got it out or something like that.  Good thing we weren't waiting on them!! 

I literally took pictures of the charred grass to show how close the fire was and it was LITERALLY 6 INCHES AWAY FROM THE TREES!!!  You know as soon as it would catch those evergreens and other trees, there would be no hope for our woods! 

I can think of nothing other than miraculously God's hand was holding back that fire from going any closer to the trees!  What a Thankful Thanksgiving it was for us! 

And as I thought of that, I realized how it was really a spiritual picture of every single person.  We are the trees, and the fire is our punishment in Hell for our sin, ready to consume us, but by the grace of God He holds His hand between us and the fire while we're on this earth, giving us the chance to repent and trust in His Son! 

And Jesus is the Fireman, the Savior, who, when we yell out to Him to save us from this eternal fire, He puts us upon His back and carries us far away from the fire. 

:-)

Another true story I just have to tell you is that my 18-year-old cousin  (this was on Thanksgiving too, jinx) was riding back home with her boyfriend after Thanksgiving dinner when her boyfriend had been taking anxiety medicine and she didn't know it, and so he basically passed out at the wheel, his eyes were glazed over and she ligitally thought he was dead.  She kept saying his name over and over but he was completely out.  They were going off the road and she reached over to grab the wheel but it was too late by the time she tried to correct it.  (I'm not kidding either) their car flipped and they were airborne for a while, and they crashed into a  telephone pole and it uprooted it from the ground.  The telephone pole was suspended over their car, held by the electrical wires very weakly.  The car was all bashed up and their car was on fire.  My cousin had passed out during one point in the whole ordeal but the heat of the fire woke her up.  When she woke up she felt something in her lap and looked down; what do you know, it was a cross with the Bible verse John 3:16 on it "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."  Not get this that she is not a Christian and has been, from what I can tell, for a long while running away from the Lord.  But God put that verse right in her lap! She couldn't suppress the Truth! She had to read it!
Meanwhile the fire was so bad that the car could blow up at any moment, and the telephone pole was suspended in a way that it would any second fall and crush them both.  The Ambulance came and she was able to crawl out of the car, though reluctant to leave her boyfriend who was still out. She made sure before she crawled out that she had the cross clenched in her hand...

Finally he came to and they were about to dig him out but he was able to somehow get out of the car. 
But isn't that amazing?!! No broken bones on either of them that we know of, and the midst of it all was that cross midst the fire!  It was certainly God's hand who had perfectly placed that cross in her lap.  He spared her life, giving her another chance to believe in Jesus and be saved from eternal fire!  So amazing!  No coincidences!!  This really happened, and God ordained it perhaps as the the starting point to begin to open her blinded eyes to His love and saving grace!

Whew! Praise the Lord that He saves the repentant sinner from the fire! 
Happy THANKSgiving! 
love,
Samantha