The beautiful view gave us no clue about the dangers ahead.
Last weekend my family took a hike. When we finally arrived at our destination, we rested. We had a snack and drank some water and marveled at all of the other people who were there. They were sitting around and taking pictures. Some were even in Eno hammocks.
After we had rested a bit, I was ready to head back. But, my son had noticed the steady stream of people climbing further up and then back down the mountain side. It was a fairly steep climb that I really wasn’t interested in making, but my son was and there were so many people doing it, how hard could it be?
As we began the climb, I asked my hubby what exactly we were looking for. He pointed out that the water in the falls we had been enjoying, had to be coming from somewhere.
I’m not a really big fan of climbing. I don’t mind going up, but I don’t like coming down. As we got near the top, my son pointed out a beautiful view and I snapped a photo. There were less people at the top and I could hear the roar of rushing water.
I finally asked a couple coming down if it was worth the climb. The young man assured me that it was, that you could see it right around the corner, but he wouldn’t go much further. I found his response odd and asked him why. He went on to explain since it was a forest fire we were looking at, that he didn’t advise getting too close.
He told me I could hear it. What I thought was rushing water, was the forest at the top of the ridge on fire and when I looked through the trees, I could see the red glow.
Our family promptly turned around and began climbing down. We told the first few people that we met that there was a forest fire. They all knew and were hoping to see it.
We felt like we were in the Twilight Zone. Who in their right mind hikes to see a forest fire? Did these people not know the danger of fires in the mountains during a drought?
As we hiked back down, we could start to see some smoke as people continued to walk towards the fire. When we got back down to the parking lot, there were two large trucks and crews from the National Forest Service in their fire gear.
We were grateful to be safely back at our car.
I have marveled over that experience for the past several days. Why would reasonably intelligent people walk purposely towards a fire? But, then I got a quiet nudge asking why reasonably intelligent people walk towards spiritual fire? Why would we walk towards instead of away from things that will harm our souls?
That climb reminded me that just because many people are doing it, doesn’t make it safe or advisable. That climb also reminded me that as soon as we realize that we are headed towards danger, we have the ability to turn away and go in the right direction. Jesus will take our hand and lead us out if we reach for Him.
But, we have to be willing to turn around and admit we were headed in the wrong direction and we have to reach for Him.
A recent brush with a forest fire reminded me. Perhaps you needed reminding too.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂