Beauty for Ashes

This past week Rick's job took us to beautiful Stanley, Idaho for a few days. It was an enjoyable 3 hour drive from our house to this little mountain town with a population of 63. It sets at the base of the Sawtooth Mountain Range. One of the most remote and unexplored mountain ranges in North America, so jagged and steep that very few roads exist and even experienced mountain climbers haven't conquered. What I wanted to share with you though, is something that spoke to me on our little journey this week.
 

 

Although Stanley, Idaho is known as one of the coldest spots in North America during the winter months, and despite the fact that there is often snow on the mountains year round, it is also an area well acquainted with forest fires. Not that many months ago, a fire ravaged this hillside and caused great destruction to the wildlife and vegetation. It stripped bare the beauty, and snuffed out the life, leaving nothing but ashes in its path. It was ugly and painful and it seemed as if the heat as suffocation would never end. It left everyone fighting it and everything enduring it utterly exhausted.
That sounds a little like some of the things we go through from time to time in our lives. Sometimes it just seems hopeless..."How could God allow so much pain?" I have been through the fire myself, and what I tell you is not just mere words....I speak from experience gained inside the lines of those fires. Right now I have several friends who's lives seem to be in ashes. I could name the ones facing a diagnosis of cancer, the young couple who just lost a child, the husband who's wife cheated on him, the mother who was forced to take a stand against her own husband in order to protect her children when the unthinkable happened...and the list just goes on and on and on. We live in a fallen world and bad things happen to good people all too often it seems.

 

 Visible in the second picture though, is what caught my eye and really spoke to me. The green...the new life emerging slowly from the ashes. The fall rains and refreshing coolness is coming to the mountains and even though its not yet spring, there are definite signs of recovery. If you look closely you can see new life and lovely colors awakening amid the ashes. The winter snows are still ahead and the cold icy feeling will remain for a time, but underneath, that new growth will be insulated and protected and spring WILL come! It might not ever be exactly the same, but maybe that's okay. You see, there's a certain tenderness in the new life emerging and if you research forest fires, you'll discover that they are actually beneficial in the long run. They provide better vegetation for the wildlife and clear debris that may have contributed the fire in the first place. The land has a way of healing and the scars of this life have a certain way of benefiting us and others around us. They tenderize us and they work to clear the debris of this world. You just can’t keep Gods beauty down. It always emerges, bringing beauty for ashes. Always. And now I’m talking about so much more than just these mountains and forests. My love and prayers for those of you going through the fire today, I know that through a power higher than you, you will emerge beautiful...beauty for ashes!

 

 

Here are a few more pictures from the little trip that Kaderick and my husband and I made.

 

 

My very own Mountain-men!

 

That's mommy and Kaderick sticking our heads out the sunroof pretending to be the queen and prince of the Sawtooth Range. =)

 

Mt McGowen and Stanley Lake

 

Fall colors on Elk Creek. And yes, we did see two HUGE elk!

 

Mt McGowen reflected in a huge mud puddle-a result of all the recent rain.