Remember when Moses met the Burning Bush, and it turned out to be God? Well it happened again the other night in Stow, Ohio, but it was my house on fire, like the Burning Bush. And the Lord was there in a big way, too! (No joke!)
We didn’t didn’t get the dramatic opportunity to save mankind like Moses, but we did get “the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension.” (Phil.4:7). And I’m OK with that. Sean, Connor and I huddled together and watched the home burn, and we had a real sense of gratitude and peace.
Connor laughs with Sean while their house burns.
Which is amazing, because a tempest swirled around us. Five fire trucks descended on our home, sirens blaring and huge spotlights blasting the bedroom windows up and down the street. (Firemen want an audience, I think; is there any other reason to use sirens at 1 am on a residential street?)
What neighbors saw from across the street.
View from McCallum's front yard.
About 20 firemen brushed back and forth past our little 3-person huddle. Firemen are really aggressive, like football players. Get out of the way or get mowed-down! They jostled us, and we tried to get out of the way, but with so many running across my little front yard, it was useless–we were bumped everywhere.
Everyone has a job, so they just attacked our house like charging NFL players, but with axes, sledgehammers, chainsaws, pikes…and then, three hoses uncoiled, straightened, and blasted the flames. Oh, I was relieved, until chunks of roof flew away. (I pictured the Civil Rights movement and those brave, poor people blasted by fire hoses.)
They squeezed the fire between two groups: one fighting down into the flames from the roof, the other fighting up into the flames from Connor’s room. Others kept bringing more tools, like spotlights or heaters, probes (?), pumps and weird things.
They chopped and ripped away the roof and ceilings, then the chimney came out of the house somehow and lay on the grass (happened so quick I missed it).
Easter morning: dead chimney on ground, roof patched--efficiency!
The original Burning Bush wouldn’t be fazed by their hoses, but mine died–and now it just stinks: there’s the difference between me and Moses, I guess.
- Amazing Fact #1: Jesus rescued my family at 1 am Easter morning–about the same time he resurrected from the grave, Israel time…what an Easter anniversary! Coincidence? No matter–we’re very thankful no matter what.
- Amazing Fact #2: Dar and I discuss, “How will we pay for the extra costs? How will we get such-and-such?” Prayer. Literally minutes later relief arrives: our amazing brothers and sisters showed up with clothes, emergency cash, necessities of all kind, and a bottle of vintage Bordeaux!
- Amazing Fact #3: That Saturday AM I teach about revolutionary living, like Jesus, who said, “…the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” I show the photo below and said (jokingly), if Dar and I end up living in something like this, without a home, that’s perfectly fine. (With caveats, as stipulated below.) Less than 24 hours later, we’re living homeless, in our van!
Our future home?
Colors
Before dawn, two carpenters were the last to leave. We talked about Easter and our families. They told me about a house they boarded-up last week where a little boy died in the flames.
The firemen could not find the boy in time. Little kids hide when they’re really scared, like in a fire. Our little dog Gizmo did the same thing, and I couldn’t find her, then the lieutenant yelled at me to stay out of the house. Connor was in tears about Gizmo, but when I got back in there I found her shivering in our closet, like a little kid would do.
”The atmosphere is different when someone dies like that,” one said.
It was Resurrection Sunday: Easter.
It was dark and cold, clear, and dotted stars yielded to colors stretching from the East. I cried a little, relieved, but mostly just shared things deep inside with the Lord, and speechless: so nice it is just to know him, even if Connor died in the fire.
The fire burned quietly over Connor's head, and we smelled nothing. But Sean heard crackling...
Connor almost died, but now he was safe with Gizmo at Kyle’s apartment. I watched my barely-adult son walk away, his little brother’s hand in his grip. He inserted calm, grownup words in-between Connor’s high-pitch chattering. Connor would much rather go home with Kyle than come to a motel, he said.
Dawn: it all streamed through my heart in clipped pictures, and it was calm inside. I was ready for sleep, and it was so quiet outside. Beautiful colors. Resurrection.
Resurrection morning at Saybrooke Blvd.
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Kyle, there’s your dude “Black Keys” getting ready to play in Akron. Read the story by “MalcomX Abram”, the Beacon-Journal music writer.
