Heaven and Hell in Wildfire Country

 

                                                                   Fire near Kimberley BC

In early June Ruth helped celebrate an auspicious birthday of a dear friend in British Columbia, along with a couple of other pals. They had a wonderful time with some cycling, paddling, hiking, and two luxurious sessions in nearby hot springs. When Ruth returned she said that if it weren't for our children and our grandchildren she could live there, with surroundings that are close to  heaven on earth.  She wasn't specific about whether I would be included in the move but I decided not to seek clarification.

Since then this friend and her partner spent an anxious week on evacuation alert in a province which is on fire, including one on the doorstep of their beautiful community. This meant they had both their vehicles packed with essentials and she was aware that when she went to the pool in the next town over she might get a notice that wouldn't allow her to return home. The threats seems to have passed, for now, but other areas have not been so fortunate. On a First Nations reserve along Lake Okanagan 30 homes of band members and 200 non-band homes had burned. I think this was the same reserve where my uncle once had his cottage.

This is the reality for so many people across the continent this summer. Despite the ignoramus politicians in the US who have scolded and threatened Canada because of cross-border wildfire smoke, similar fires rage in Washington state, destroying huge areas of forest and creeping into the edges of towns and cities. As with BC, it is a nightmare of loss for many, hellish we might say. 

Someone who has become an online friend through this blog kindly wrote to ask how we were doing in Ontario given the number of fires here. She and her husband, both in their 80s lived in an idyllic forest setting until a wildfire incinerated their home and virtually all their possessions a few years ago. He is an acclaimed acoustician and author and his extensive library of nature recordings went up in smoke. Providentially, a university had archived and made copies of the recordings not long before the fire.

I've written about the exceptional book by the late theologian Sally McFague, an American who came to teach in British Columbia and stayed until her death. Nearly 30 years ago she explored what it means to be Super, Natural Christians, a riff on the Super, Natural British Columbia tourism theme at the time.

I do not believe that we will protect the resources or the beauty of what many of us know as Canada by building more pipelines or declaring ourselves an "energy superpower" -- what does really mean, anyway? 

Creator, teach us what it means to be Super, Natural Christians, on earth as it is in heaven.