Recovering after the fire

About two and a half weeks ago, I posted a story about a fire in the woods behind our office. Then a week ago, I took this picture of things starting to grow again in the burned area. I also saw some burrows of animals (ants and wasps I think) but I didn't take pictures of those. You know that life will return to the area but it is heartening to actually see it happen. I'll try to take pictures of the area from time to time and post them here to show the progress.

I don't know much about this but I guess that the fact the plants and animals are coming back this quickly means the fire wasn't that intense and didn't last that long. If it had been hotter or lasted longer, seeds and roots deeper in the ground would have been destroyed and animals deeper in the ground would have been killed. But even with really intense and long lasting fires, life eventually returns.

I think about this now in light of the terrible devastation happening in the Gulf of Mexico (and especially the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida) due to the British Petroleum oil rig explosion and resulting oil spill. There have been other oil spills and they have been devastating. They have long lasting effects. But eventually, as the clean-up progresses, you can start to see improvements. There always comes a point when you can say, "Things are bad but they are getting better." But we haven't reached that point in the Gulf yet. As oil continues to gush from the well, healing cannot begin. Imagine if the fire in our woods was still burning. Nothing would be growing at this point and as it continued, seeds and animals deeper and deeper in the soil would be destroyed. The longer the fire continued, the longer would be the recovery. And, of course, fires don't just burn in one area. If the fire continued to burn, it would spread.

This is the worst thing about the oil spill that is going on in the Gulf of Mexico. It continues and no one knows when we'll be able to say, "It's bad but things are getting better." For as terrible as it is, it continues to get worse. That is the tragedy of this thing. There is no end in sight. Please join me in praying for the people whose lives and livelihoods are being ruined by this thing. And please join me in praying for the people trying to stop the leak. We need to see an end to this disaster.