going through the fire

As the black flames billowed up into the sky hiding the sunshine on the warm Jamaican day my heart sank.

We do Christians hurt?
Why do bad things happen?

As a Pastor's wife I often dread this {tough} question.  I want sunshine and smiles and happy endings.  My heart hurts when others hurt and have sorrow.

How do you explain to someone who is going through such a dark valley that God knows and hasn't left them?
When they feel so alone and abused how do you tell them God is love?

How do you tell them Why?

Recently we were traveling through another parish that is unusually flat for Jamaica.  There were sugar cane fields stretched out on all sides of us.  We could see black billowing smoke filling the sky and I remarked to my husband that something large was burning.  He said they were burning the fields.  The beautiful healthy sugar cane was being burned.

True Facts: Burning of the sugar cane field is part of the harvesting process.  During this time the field is set on fire and the leaves are burned off leaving only the cane.  The part burned off is called "trash" and is made up of straw, the tops, and green and dry leaves.  The burning process kills any microorganisms and the trash left behind help keep the fields rich.

We pulled to the side of the road and watched the billowing black smoke filling the sky.  We could see the flames leaping up and running throughout the fields.  My heart was touched thinking about the sadness of watching something that you've worked so hard for being destroyed right before your eyes.  So often life can be the same way. There was the fire.  The heat.  Your pain.  Your suffering.

There's so much that we can not see.

Through the fire God has a plan to perfect the sugar cane.  It is hard to tell when the flames are licking at the tall stalk... but some day that will be little {brown} grains I stir into my tea.

Pain and trials of life are never easy.  Often they are very painful.  At the time it is so hard to see the point.

We always come through stronger and more perfected into the image that God has for us to be.  If we allow ourselves to be.