By now, we have all heard about the wildfires that have spread in Gatlinburg, TN and Pigeon Forge, TN. I came up upon an article from a Knoxville, TN news station about a Dollywood employee finding a page from a Bible while cleaning up the debris from the park. During a tragedy or disaster situation, especially like this one, we always wonder why God allowed this to happen, especially with a beautiful scenery of nature that He has created for us to enjoy. We may never know right now why this has happened, but God will receive all of the glory at the end of all of this. It may be tomorrow, next month, next year, or ten years from now, we just never know. All of this did not take God by surprise. He already knew that this was going to happen way before it even happened.
A Dollywood employee was one of the employees that was cleaning up from the debris in the park to get prepared for the re-open for Friday afternoon. He found a page from the Bible underneath a bench that had been burned on the edges, but you could read the middle of the page. The page was from Joel. I usually hear about Bible's or pages from Bible's being found in the debris after a fire or damage from a tornado, so when I saw this article, it kind of did not take me by surprise, but after I read some of the verses, I was caught by surprised!
Here are some of the verses:
Joel 1:15 -"The day of the LORD is near, the day when destruction comes from the Almighty. How terrible that day will be!"
Joel 1:19 -"To you, LORD, I call, for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness and flames have burned up all the trees of the field."
Joel 1:20 -"Even the beasts of the field pant for you because the water brooks are dried up,
and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness."
Joel 2:1 -"Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand."
I do not know about you, but once I read these verses, I am blown away about how mighty and awesome God is! Is this something that God is trying to grab our attention on so we can draw closer to Him? Whatever God is trying to tell us, I am praying for peace and patience for all of the families affected by the fires, strength and courage for the volunteers, firefighters, and city officials while trying to fight out the fires and assess the damage, and for God's will to be done in this situation. Will you join me in praying as well? This situation is almost unreal, but God has His reasoning for this.
