May I Never Forget to be Thankful....

 

I cant stop looking at picture of the wildfires burning in Colorado.

You see, I grew up there.

not my pic, if I could find source, I would post it...sorry...

High in the mountains, in a little bitty town that once was a big rip-roaring town that breathed Gold dust, and Silver strikes, saloons, and wood board walks, panning for gold....

A town that had streets familiar with feet such as Molly Brown, Billy the Kid, and a hundred thousand hungry, dirty men desperate for financial gain from the solid, indomitable rocks around them.

I grew up thinking all of that was normal, and everyone else had the same things, the same celebrations, the same type of history all around them.

I knew what it was to pan for gold, to drink a true sasparilla soda, to try to haul something using a mule, or ride in a stagecoach, because each year my itty bitty town had a celebration that honored this heritage.

My brother had a teacher in 5th grade that was honored as one of the "true" mountain men of his generation, and he taught his class how to set traps, eat squirrel, and live in an igloo they built with their own hands.

Yep. That was what my childhood was like.

And now, as I see 36,000 people being evacuated.

source

 

As I see the Air Force Academy evacuated, a place of great pride
(and many jobs) to the people of Colorado...

As I see homes burning to the ground....

source

 And animals dying because their owners cant get them out in time because the fire is moving so fast...

source

When I hear that the Flying W Ranch, a historic landmark I grew up knowing and loving is completely gone...

I am telling  you, it breaks my heart.

We grew up knowing all about wildfires, how dangerous and deadly they can be. How they can turn in a moment and capture the firefighters in between lines of fire, trapping them... killing them. How a single gust of wind can turn a smolder into a raging monster that jumps fire walls and ridges of bare rock hundreds of feet apart. We knew never to start a fire without permission, and to make good and sure it was really put out when we were done camping, or picnicking.

As I look around me at the green grass, and clear air, the water in the kiddie pool, and the garden thriving in the sun, all my troubles seem so incredibly insignificant in comparison to what I know is happening right now to people I love, and a state I hold dear to my heart.  I can only pray...and pray...and pray.

Would you join with me in praying for Colorado? 

Pray for the people who have lost everything, or the ones who are sitting, right now in a shelter, in anguish,
wondering about the unknown.

Pray for the firefighters who are fearlessly rushing into the fray just as the firefighters did on 9/11, heedless of their own safety, intent on only saving who and what they could.
They are truly on the front line of an enormous battle.

Pray for the owners of the ranches, and farms, who are powerless to stop the loss of their crops, and their livestock, for how can one or two people control a thousand animals? Or save a field of dry grain?

 It makes me stop and think,
search my heart, ask for wisdom to absorb it all.

Why does this strike me so hard as prophetic of what we will see coming in the future of our country? For the first time ever on the history of this great and noble nation, as homes are burning in subdivisions in Colorado Springs, our Congress has moved forward to hold our Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for not providing information on "a sting gone bad" that has cut our nation to its core, taken a true patriot away from his family, and left us wondering what else we are in the dark about.

Pray for our nation.

Pray that the giant raging wildfires beneath the surface of our government, our leadership, our economy, can and will pull us together rather than apart. Pray that the fires can be put out, and just refine out the impurities, not create devastation within. 

And I pray: Lord, let me never forget to be thankful for the things I have that are imperishable---

Your love, my family, the hope I have in You. 

May we never forget to focus on those things, and in true humility, step forward to do what we can to those who need our help.

Many Blessings to you and yours,

Heather

source: Pinterest

http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2012/06/27/colorado-wildfires-waldo-canyon-fire-colorado-springs/5732/