One beautiful spring morning when I was a teenager, I had the rare opportunity to take a ride in a hot air balloon.
I loved it.
I loved watching the world shrink below me and the sheer beauty that such a different vantage point allowed. I could see everything from a whole new perspective.
At that time I had no idea that what was making our ride so beautiful was fire, and the heat it generated as it lifted us high into the sky.
Four years ago our fifth child, a daughter named Lucy, was born with six toes on one foot. The doctor quickly reassured us that it was much more common than we realized and that it could be removed without a fuss. Just like that teenager in that balloon years before, I had no idea at that time what fire that seemingly insignificant extra little toe would bring into our lives. A couple years later that toe would lead to a diagnosis of a rare genetic syndrome that would cause a myriad of health issues, most heart-breaking for us: imminent blindness.
Although our journey has certainly been a refiners fire, I would never trade it. It has made my children glow with compassion, it’s made me be a more deliberate mother, and my dear husband, well, he’s still trying to figure out whether he likes this fire much at all.
But that’s ok. Some fires last a long, long time.
Everyone here has some unexpected fire in their lives whether they are on the surface or deep down inside. Our fires are sometimes big and sometimes small…things ranging from your seven-year-old thinking it’s funny to call 911 (like what happened at our house last week), or they could be smoldering long-term fires like having to deal with drug or alcohol addictions, or losing a loved one. But I’d venture to say that as we look back on these fires, big or small, we would probably all agree that they, although at times horribly painful, have elevated us as they have given us a new perspective in life to make us stronger.
I love this quote from Rick Warren: “Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort.”
Just like a ride in a hot air balloon, sometimes the wind takes us places we may not want to go. But we have to train ourselves to cherish the new vantage point that the fires in our life give us, and eventually we find that these fires are what elevates us to become the kinds of Mothers God wants us to be.
In closing I want to share one more quote: “Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved piece, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming ‑‑WOW ‑‑ WHAT A RIDE!”
May we all go forth and remember that fire has the power to elevate if only we will allow the hand of God to help us through the hottest, most smouldering parts.
