Baker: What really matters?

Fire. The horizon is full of fire. It’s miles and miles away…surely, it will be contained in the massive forests? Surely, the rocks and hills will stop it. It’ll burn itself out any day now. The firefighters are working so hard. But no, it’s still out of control. Santa Ana winds are spreading the fire to larger and larger areas. Oh no! Now it’s morphed into several different fires, and they’re expanding exponentially. It can’t engulf entire communities, can it? Even here, it’s getting smokey, though the fires are still quite a distance away. The smoke is like fog now, blanketing everything, even though the fires are still miles away. Could they, might they, reach my town, my neighborhood? My home?

News reports from California show us weary firefighters who, with smoke-stained faces and gritty determination, struggle to hold the line against Mother Nature. We see the anxious faces of those whose homes lie in the path of destruction—people who have had to pack up whatever they could carry, leaving their beloved homes and precious possessions behind. Worst of all are the reports of lives lost. Of homes, schools, churches, entire neighborhoods and communities gone forever.