There are some memories you can't get out of your head. The memory of the 2003 Cedar fire and its devastation. The uncertainty when evacuating. The thick smoke everywhere. The smell. Returning home to see how close the fire came. I remember vividly the week following with ash everywhere - every new wind blowing it up and making your heart stop wondering if another fire had started. Our kids wondering if the air would be clear enough to trick-or-treat. It was the largest in California's history. We were comforted with the thought that surely this would never happen again and destroy so many homes.
Now four years later we are in Houston. We watch on the internet eerily similar scenes. Talking with family and remembering those feelings of the sheer overwhelming magnitude of it all. Many more homes destroyed. Thankfully, fewer lives lost. We feel the hearbreak of hearing a friends home burnt to the ground and wish we were there to give a hug.
I don't know what it feels like to lose everything. I do know the anticipation of wondering if there is a home to return to when we evacuated from Rita. I also know the amazing way people can meet other's needs in times of crisis as we saw here in Houston during Katrina.
Memories, even tragic ones, shape us and mold us into who God created us to be. Catastrophic events can help us focus on what is really important - people. Things can be replaced. Memories and people are irreplaceable. Hang in there San Diego - you have great people and a greater God.
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