Flood and Fire
Summer in Australia can seem a contradiction to many people. Our southern most point is not far below Hobart, which is at the same latitude in the southern hemisphere as New York, Rome and Beijing are in the northern hemisphere. Our northern most point is Thursday Island, which is at the same latitude in the southern hemisphere as the nations of Columbia, Indonesia and Ethiopia are in the northern hemisphere.
In other words, Australia ranges from the tropics to the cold temperate zone. That means summer can bring floods in the tropical north, and fires - anywhere.
2009 will go down as one of those years when Australia suffered both flood and fire with a vengeance. In the north, large areas of Queensland drowned in the deluge brought by two simultaneous cyclones, while, in the south, fires in Victoria resulted in the loss of around 230 lives.
While none of my own family suffered as a result of these calamities, two of my sons danced around the edges of them. Both these sons made three important decisions, that unknown to them, would keep them from difficulties.
My second son, Phillip, and his family, arrived back in Australia last December, after having spent a few years working in Germany. In late January, they began the 3,500km (2,100 miles) journey north to Cairns, where Phillip is now employed.
They had planned to leave on a Saturday, but a few days before then, decided they would leave on the Friday. They had also planned to stay two nights in Sydney, but after having spent one night there, decided to push on.
At the time, they had no idea that these decisions were determining the outcome of their journey. However, it was the combination of these two decisions and a third one that meant that they reached their destination in 7 days instead of 21 days.
The third decisive moment came when they had planned to stop at a town north of Brisbane, but after arrival, decided to travel a few more hours before finding a motel. The next morning, they heard that the road they had crossed the evening before was under 30cm (12in) of water. As they continued to travel north, the roads closed behind them, but stayed open in front of them and after another two days and nights of travel they arrived safely at their destination.
Shortly after Phillip and his family arrived in Cairns, my fifth son, David had an advanced motor cycle training day an hour north of central Melbourne. It happened that this training day fell on what turned out to be the hottest day for Melbourne in recorded history, with temperatures reaching 47 degrees Celsius (117 Fahrenheit). He was in his leathers all day, driving on bitumen, so he and the other 12 riders ‘cooked’. He said he drank 7 litres of water and ‘piddled’ (urinated) just once.
Anyway, the first of three decisions that would greatly impact the outcome of David’s day was made when all the riders agreed to finish the day one and a half hour early. They were fatigued and still had to ride home. David couldn’t get home by riding directly south on the freeway as it was closed because of fires, so decided to drive east to Kinglake and then south to another son’s home for dinner.
He set out on the one hour ride to Kinglake, noting smoke sweeping across the sky from the east, covering the afternoon sun and giving the world an eerie colour. However, the fires were not near his route. Nor were they anywhere near Kinglake.
On arrival in Kinglake, he headed straight for his favourite bakery, and spent half an hour enjoying the company of other bike riders and some of the Kinglake locals.
Then, at 4.04pm, he suddenly stood up and said, ‘Time to go’. This was decision number two.
He told me later that he had no real reason to leave. Everything was normal. The locals had told him the town was in no danger as the fires were a long way off. The conversation and camaraderie in the bakery - as well as the air conditioning - were welcome relief after his demanding training day, and he wasn’t running late for anything either.
However, the sense that he should leave was strong enough for him to get up and ride out of town. He paused momentarily at the start of a half hour bushwalk to a waterfall just outside Kinglake, then made his third, possibly life-saving decision, saying to himself, ‘Not today’, and kept riding.
Ten years of drought, combined with record high temperatures and ferocious winds caused the fire at its peak to leap across the tree tops, covering 30km (18 miles) in just fifteen minutes. Fires that were a safe distance from the town a quarter hour before took everyone by surprise, engulfing the town shortly after my son rode out.
By 4.30pm it was all over. Just a handful of houses and a row of shops remain of that little town that was home to 1,500 people. Nearly the entire route David rode from the motorcycle track to 13 km south of Kinglake was ravaged by the fires, and about 120 people died in their homes and vehicles along that route.
Three decisions had saved Phillip from being stranded with his family for two weeks waiting for flood waters to subside.
Three decisions had kept David out of harm that dreadful summer day.
I don’t have answers for all the questions that people ask when such devastation hits. ‘Why did God let this happen?’ ‘Why did so and so die?’ ‘Why did so many people die?’ ‘Why did Christians die?’
For our part, we are grateful for Phillip’s clear passage through to Cairns, and so very thankful for David’s safety. I believe that each of the decisions our sons made was because our loving Heavenly Father was prompting them to action. Their decisions weren’t accompanied by angelic choirs or even with a quiet sense of ‘this is God speaking’. They were just decisions that were made at the time.
And so it is with all of life. Little decisions can sometimes lead to big consequences. Richard Spencer of the London Telegraph newspaper when reporting on the fire at Kinglake said, “Survivors and fire crews agree that the speed was unprecedented, and faced families with instantaneous, life-or-death decisions, strings of choices with unseen outcomes - stay or go, drive or run, left or right.”
Most of us will never need to make the kind of urgent life-or-death decisions that so many people living to the north and east of Melbourne had to make on that Black Saturday.
However, we do make decisions on a daily basis. Most of those decisions are inconsequential in the bigger scheme of things. The brand of toothpaste you choose or the colour blouse you put on for the day aren’t going to change anything.
But other decisions just might. How are we ever going to know which is the RIGHT decision when the outcomes are unseen to us. Only God can see the future so, no matter what has gone before, it is to Him I choose to turn.
“Commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established”. Prov 16:3
“In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths”. Prov 3:6
“Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass”. Psalm 34:5
While I can’t answer all the questions people might ask, I can encourage you to commit your works and ways to the Lord and acknowledge your need for Him in every part of your life.
As you cultivate these things, God will give you the right thoughts at the right time. He will direct your paths. He will bring to pass His purposes.