Fire Restoration

This week is Holy Week and I wanted to reflect on our God, how big He is and how He orchestrated the greatest rescue by sending His son to save us!

Fire Restoration

A year after we were married we were living in the small one bedroom apartment I rented as a single woman. We were saving and preparing to purchase our first home. My husband was working second shift which would keep us rotating around the clock. One evening he came home after midnight and we finally got settled around 3 AM for bed. At 6 AM I awoke to a strange beeping noise and my dog whining. The room was filled with smoke and I couldn’t see more than six inches in front of me. I screamed and woke my husband who previously had been a firefighter. He instructed me to get low to the ground and get out of the house. Suddenly I realized that with crutches and one leg there really isn’t a way to crawl so I closed my eyes and made my way downstairs and outside the best way I could.

Once outside we called 911, the property owner (my father), and it was then that I realized my prosthetic leg was still inside the house. Prosthetic legs can cost anywhere from $50,000-$100,000 and insurance only covered mine at that point every few years. I panicked and begged my husband to maneuver through the door and get it out, which he did. The whole time was very scary for both my family that owned the house and for us. The electrical fire started on the side of the house we weren’t renting (which was vacated two weeks prior) and was on the other side of our bedroom wall.

After the fire company left we walked through the house to see what the damage looked like. Most of the damage on our side was from black smoke. As we walked through the damage and saw what had been happening within 20 feet of our bed as we slept we were astounded. The damage was horrifying. We walked up the stairs to see that the firefighters, unable to see, had to axe through different walls and rooms to find their way and be sure everyone was safe. On the other side of the wall where we slept they had axed through our bedroom wall and the piece that fell was a perfect cross. Up until this point I hadn’t realized how close we had been to losing our lives. When I saw the cross my eyes filled with tears as I realized that Jesus conquered the grave not only two thousand years ago, not only when I had cancer, not only when I was delivered from drugs, but right up to that moment in my life. God is so much bigger than I could ever have imagined.

The Fire Marshall explained to us that within another ten minutes of sleeping if we had not got up we would have died in our sleep without even knowing what was going on.

Thinking back I realized another thing that God caused to happen. When I had chemotherapy as a young child I lost my ability to hear high pitch frequencies such as birds and fire alarms. I can’t even tell you the number of times in my career that I would be oblivious and wondering why everyone was scrambling for their purses and coats only to be told there was a fire drill. For some reason that morning I heard the alarm beeping and the dog whining which alerted me to know what was happening around us.

God’s hand was in this. The other half of the house was vacated so no one was present, I was miraculously stirred and my ears opened, almost all of the damage we had was smoke damage, no one was hurt. We were displaced for a very trying and difficult month but even through this month God has His hand on us. The offer we made on a small house was approved. Paperwork breezed by and at the end of the month we stepped over the threshold of our very own home. The fire restoration company delivered all of our treated belongings to the new home and we didn’t even have to box or move anything! God came down in the midst of a tragedy and worked things together in a way that we were able to handle what was set before us and enlarge our “tent” in a spiritual and physical sense.

When Jesus died on the cross He paid the price for so much more than we realize. Each of these moments were gifts from heaven. We take for granted that we are saved, but when we really stop to think and count the little things that because of His sacrifice God blesses us with each and every day we can become overwhelmed quickly. Because of the sacrifice Jesus made for us we don’t simply have acceptance with God, we have the favor of God.

After the fire my mindset shifted about life. I do not have control over it at all. Only God can determine the length of my life and only I can determine to hand over the reins to Him. Since that day it has been confirmed to me on a new level that God has a plan for my life and that the work I am here to accomplish is far from complete. While I am just beginning to realize the beginning of this purpose I no longer stress or worry about it because now I KNOW beyond a shadow of doubt that He is in control.

A little while ago I dreamt I was in worship and there was this beautiful song from heaven that we were singing. When I woke up I remembered the words of the upbeat chorus:

“Every day I live – I will worship

Every day I breathe – I’ll find time to break

Every day that’s new – I will give to you

For NOTHING is too big,

NOTHING is too big,

For MY GOD!”

Realizing that because of Jesus God chooses not just to protect us, guide us, work all things together for good but to also lavishly give us abundant life because we choose to accept and walk with Him. When others speak of “winks from God” in their daily life I now smile to myself and feel the warmth of knowing how God rescued me from so many things and cares even right down to the tiniest detail.

For every little blessing that God gives to me, every tragedy He turns out to work for the best, every miraculous moment that I experience I will praise Him for! For nothing is too big for My God!