It’s 2020, so the fact that there are wildfires raging in California shouldn’t be too much of a surprise.  Actually, fires in California during the summer are not uncommon in any year.  Most of these fires every summer are started by lightning.  What seems a little “2020-ish” about one of this year’s fires is how it started.  The so-called “El Dorado Fire”, which began Saturday, was started at a “Gender Reveal Party” that went terribly wrong.   

“Terribly wrong” might be the wrong term to use here.  The family - perhaps in some kind of Gender Reveal “Arms Race” in which each family tries to upstage their friends in an ever-escalating quest to have the most exciting “Reveal” - decided that it would be fun to reveal the gender of their expected baby by setting off a pyrotechnic device that would release the either blue or pink smoke.  Unfortunately, they failed to take into consideration the fact that using a pyrotechnic device - which, by definition, involves fire - in dry conditions accompanied by high heat and high winds, was not a wise idea.  The device, of course, immediately set the area ablaze.  The family tried unsuccessfully to stop the fire.  They called the Fire Department but, as you might expect, there was no way the firemen could possibly get to them in time.  By the time they arrived, the fire was out of control.  Now, more than 7000 acres have been burned, several communities in the Yucaipa area about 70 miles east of Los Angeles have been evacuated, and as of this writing, the fire is only 5% contained.  [No word yet on the actual gender of the baby.]

“Terribly foolish” might be a better phrase to describe this family.  What were they thinking?  Were they even thinking of anything other than how awesome this was going to be, how cool their friends would think they were, how difficult it would be for their friends to come up with a more memorable way to reveal the gender of their babies?

“Terribly sorry” also comes to mind.  Because punishment is most likely coming.  Criminal charges are a possibility, depending, perhaps, on whether any lives or homes are lost.  Civil liability is also a possibility.  I hope they are insured.

Do you think that this family had any idea what was in store for them as the alarm clock went off on Saturday morning?  This wasn’t going to be just another ordinary day.  No; this was going to be a magical, exciting and wonderful day of celebration and laughter and joy!  They had been dreaming of this day.  They had planned everything down to the smallest detail.  That is, they had planned everything, except the most important thing.  And, by the time they realized what they had forgotten, it was too late.  As they watched, helplessly, all of their plans and dreams literally went up in smoke.  And even worse, they watched helplessly as the hopes and plans and dreams of other people went up in the smoke of the firestorm that they had created.

I must tell you, preachers love it when true stories like this come along, stories which so easily translate into spiritual applications.  “Are you being foolish?  Have you left God out of your life’s plans?  Will you be sorry someday?  Are you ready for that Day to come?”  And all of that is true and obvious to most of us.

But when I read this story, after the initial chuckle and looking-down-my-nose at such foolishness was over, I started to wonder where I stand.  Because, usually, I’m not caught off-guard like this poor family was by their own foolishness.  Usually, I have a pretty good idea that what I am doing is going to end up badly, but I just proceed anyway.  Is anybody else out there like this? 

Being negligent is one thing.  Anybody can make a mistake like this “Gender Reveal” family did.  They didn’t intend to become famous for burning down East L.A.  We can sympathize with them, even if we believe that we would never make THAT particular mistake.  But being willfully stubborn, being willfully proud, is something else entirely, especially when it ends in perfectly predictable terrible results.    

Of course, it’s almost hard to imagine that someone would be too “proud” to change their actions or thoughts when it’s obvious that nothing good is going to come from the path they’re taking.  How can someone be so foolish?  Yet, as we all know, this happens all the time.  We can see it happening in the lives of other people.  And sometimes, it happens to me.  Which is terribly sad, and terribly foolish.       

Perhaps wisdom is what happens when we finally realize that we don’t have to keep on doing things that are going to end up badly.  Let’s pray we get some of that wisdom before it all goes up in smoke.  

Ambrose Ramsey

Shepherd