As I write this in June of 2023, the wildfires in Canada are still burning but eventually will burn out. [Note 1] This is much like the fires of Oregon and California that we witnessed while living out west. Once a fire gets started, it can rage out of control burning everything in its path. What is amazing, is that in God’s creation there is a resiliency to life. The forest fire will consume life in its path, but not the life very deep or hidden in the seeds of cones that explode in the fire and are cast about to sprout again another day.

This gives us a beautiful picture of the final cleansing the earth will experience from evil in the resurrection of the children of God to an inheritance imperishable, incorruptible, and reserved eternally for us by God’s grace. Someday, there will be no more need for wildfires (1 Peter 1:3-9).

The fire destroys, but also cleanses. In its aftermath, new life is given a chance to burst forth.

I have been reading through the Bible this year and have just finished the portions that deal with the life of Saul and David and have begun reading of Solomon’s reign (1 Kings 2:26-46). There is so much blood and retribution that it sickens me at times. I’ve tried to take away from this reading something that will build my soul because, as we say in our worship services, “This is the Word of the Lord, thanks be to God!”

Thankfully, I have landed on two things that I find helpful – not only in becoming grateful for these stories being in God’s book, but also in the ongoing grief work that I must do today.

First, the destructiveness of sin is like a wildfire running its course

The biblical stories of David and Solomon are a good example of how deeply woven into our individual and community stories are the destructive effects of sin. Any sin is a deeply destructive thing but without the biblical stories I doubt we would see how destructive. Am I sickened by the stories? Yes, but how much more must a holy and loving God recoil from how bent we are to destroy the good he has created.

Second, the destruction of sin is never the end of God’s story

Yes, the destructiveness of sin is like wildfire at times and seems to go and on, consuming all in its path, BUT it’s never the end of the story. In the stories of Israel’s kings the retribution and bloodshed can come decades after the offense. But the thing I’m beginning to see in all of this is that “deeper magic” reflected in the Narnia stories.[Note 2] When death and destruction arising out of our humanity runs its course, there we find God. His glory, power and majesty frames that moment in life abundant and free. Oh, what grace!

There is a resiliency and deeply hidden power in the life God has created and the purposes for which we exist. The destruction that follows our sin may have to run its course, but life will outpace it and by God’s overpowering grace, life will be renewed and reborn.

“He who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and reveals His thoughts to man, He who turns dawn to darkness, and treads the high places of the earth—the LORD God Almighty is His name.”

Amos 4:13 NIV

In my life, there is a small example of this second point happening.

My wife Julia died – not because of some sinful act on her part but because her life was deeply woven in with the life we all experience as a full member in the fallen race of humanity. And Julia’s death was a wildfire consuming the life that she and I had together. It consumed time, money, ministry activities, fellowship, hospitality, ways of thinking and living together, a oneness of soul, etc. But there is something deeper and greater at work here. Life that God has planted in my soul and that of my family has re-sprouted. The forest of new growth that is coming forth looks different than what was here before, but the core is the same, the breath of life that God has given.

It is wonderful to know that the brokenness of our lives now will be completely healed and completely, beautifully glorified in the resurrection promise to the dead in Christ.

“So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. “

1 Corinthians 15:42‭-‬43 NIV

Inspirational Resources

• Grace Chapel is Dedicated
• You Cannot Be Stopped – Laura Story
• Next Time – Living Stones Quartet
• He Will Not Let You Go – Laura Story
• Open Hands – Laura Story

Note 1

Canada is at national preparedness level 5, indicating full commitment of national resources is ongoing, demand for resources is extreme, and international resources are being mobilized. Quebec is at Preparedness Level 5, Alberta and Ontario are at Preparedness Level 4, British Columbia and Saskatchewan are at Preparedness Level 3, and all other agencies are at Preparedness Level 1 or 2. There are 78 uncontrolled fires, 83 being held, and 122 have come under control. The number of fires is well above [10 year] average for this time of year, and well above the average for area burned for this time of year . The total acreage burned in Canada thus far in 2023 is 14,722,603 acres (5,958,026 hectares). [Current as of June 21, 2023: https://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/report%5D

Note 2

So, what about the “Deeper Magic”? Paul Ford likens it to “self-sacrificing love” (Pocket Companion to Narnia, 214) and points to The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, chapter 15, where Aslan says: “Though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.” This Deeper Magic is thus both older and less known than the Deep Magic. Broadly speaking, the Deeper Magic parallels God’s grace in the New Covenant: a grace that was only foreshadowed in the Old Testament, a grace that fulfills the Law and its sacrificial system, a grace that was established long before the Old Testament law was formally given. Thus Duriez writes: “[The deeper magic is] a deeper principle than the natural moral order that sustains the world. This is a principle resembling the New Testament notion of grace, which fulfills and perfects the older law.” (A Field Guide to Narnia, 181)