Residents and firefighters looked on helpless as wildfires fanned by hurricane-force winds swept through the drought-parched suburbs of Los Angeles, devouring everything in their path. Thousands of homes have been destroyed, entire suburbs reduced to ashes, including some of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in the USA. The scene in the wake of the fires has been compared to the aftermath of an atomic bomb.
Such was the speed of the fires’ advance that many people were able to take nothing with them except the clothes they wore. But they did have warning and assistance to evacuate, and so thankfully – unlike the carnage that accompanies so many natural and man-made disasters in our world – the death toll has been very low.
Events like this make us stop and think. The comment of one LA resident caught my eye: “It’s moments like this that make us recognize what truly matters – that things are only things.”
As Jesus Christ said, ‘One’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions’ (Luke 12:15).
Jesus lived his life in poverty. He wasn’t interested in things, he was interested in people. But that’s not all – above everything else, his life was devoted to God. His mission was to preach the Gospel of God’s Kingdom (Luke 4:43), and to give his life as a sacrifice to enable people to gain eternal life in that Kingdom (John 3:16).
As far as wealth goes, his message was:
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:19-21).
We live in an age where so many people are preoccupied with acquiring ‘things’ – houses, cars, gadgets. But every so often, something happens that reminds us how transient these things are, and how little they mean.
Chris Parkin
Picture credit: istockphoto.com/ Oliver Knight