My husband charged toward the TV. “You’re going to want to see this,” he said as he switched on the news that Boulder County, Colorado, was raging with fire!
Leaping flames danced on the screen and everything on my to-do list vanished. Paul and I huddled together and watched live as a fire hurricane, with gusts up to 105 miles an hour, plowed through nearby towns. We saw the wind push tall flames flat as they brushed through the prairie grass, spreading huge swatches of black. We watched as winding fire-snakes crept into backyards, exploding everything they touched into cinders.
I watched till two in the morning, horrified by the sight of 1000 homes burning to the ground.
By morning we got our miracle. The winds died, the snow fell, and the fires hissed to a stop. But the sunrise revealed the heartbreaking site of once beautiful houses transformed into scorched concrete foundations filled with ash.
One woman told of seeing a wall of fire five feet from her house. She ran with only her life, returning a day later to find a smoking hole in the ground.
So, my question is, what happens when the miracle you’ve prayed for turns to ashes? The answer: I believe it means your miracle is still in process.
Eighty years ago, when my dad was fourteen, he was in charge of the family farm as his brothers had joined the war effort. It was left to young Leroy to plant an acre of peanuts, and he got tired of waiting for his harvest. He told me, “I dug up my crop to check on it, but the process of digging up my crop killed it.”
If my dad had trusted God’s miracle process of growing peanuts and given his crop more time, he would have enjoyed a harvest.
It’s the same with us. We will reap bitterness when we get tired of waiting for our miracle or if we believe God has let us down. But if we give God more time, trusting Him no matter what, our miracle will come, even if it doesn’t look the way we’d imagined it.
As for my Colorado neighbors, their story isn’t over. If they wait on God, He will turn their calamity into a blessing. But if they turn their backs on God, they will reap bitter hearts.
I’ve learned God turns ashes into miracles in my own life when I trust Him.
Isaiah 61:3 says, “He will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair” (NLT).
Trust God’s miracle process. Give God your ashes, mourning, and despair, and watch Him turn it all to joy. Your miracle may only need a little more trust and a lot more time.
PRAYER: God, teach me to trust You with the ashes of my disappointments so I can see You turn my heartache into miracles of joy and praise.
