When it feels like the world all around you is on fire, it’s hard to focus on anything else.

As of Sunday evening, a wildfire near Lake Lure, one county over from where we live, is approaching 3,000 acres. Smoke hangs heavy in the air. The 10-day forecast offers no hope of rain.

I look around the house and try to think what I would grab if we had to evacuate taking only what we could carry in the car. The computers, family mementos, original artwork, some of my favorite clothes and jewelry. Packing up Thistle goes without saying. The bedroom suite we saved from the flood in SC won’t fit in the car. The dining room furniture Dad found for us won’t either.

Just stuff. Replaceable.

What’s really hard is this sudden reminder that the world I know is incredibly fragile. Illness, natural disaster, economic hardship–any number of crises could suddenly change everything.

And I feel dry and dusty.

I’m praying for rain. Even though the forecast is dry, dry, dry.

I’m reminded of Elijah in I Kings 17& 18. After three years of drought God told Elijah he would send rain. So Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to call on their god to consume a sacrifice. Baal had nothing to say. Then Elijah doused his own sacrifice in water three times (during a drought!) and God promptly consumed it and the people believed. Afterwards, Elijah went to the top of Mt. Carmel and bowed low. Seven times he sent his servant to look out across the sea. On the seventh trip the servant saw a cloud the size of a man’s hand.

And then a heavy rain began to fall.

God can do anything. He can send fire to consume a sacrifice and he can send rain to refresh a dry land. But sometimes we have to wait and have faith.

Please join me in praying for rain.