“Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape for the hills, lest you be swept away” (Genesis 19:17).

When God destroys Sodom and Gomorra with fire, he tells Lot to escape and flee with his family. But Lot ‘lingers’ and literally has to be seized and removed. Although the bible doesn’t say why Lot lingers, my sense is that he was overwhelmed by the fast approaching disaster and couldn’t decide what to take and what to leave behind.

As wildfires rip through our region, thousands of people are evacuated with a moment’s notice (maybe you’re one of them) and some return to find their homes, and perhaps a lifetime of memories, reduced to nothing but a pile of ashes.

Picking up the pieces after a tragedy like that continues years after the news cycle ends. Although it’s impossible not to ‘linger like Lot;’ It’s comforting to know that God is our provider and He wants us to rely on Him, especially when hard times hit:

“Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed” (Psalm 57:1).

Our real home is in heaven where Jesus is preparing a place for us that can never be destroyed. It’s a place more glorious than any contractor can build or insurance policy can replace:

“In my fathers House are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2).

“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands” (2 Corinthians 5:1).

As you journey through times of grief and loss, God invites you to ‘take refuge’ in the ‘shadow of His wings,’ that He might be peace and comfort in the midst of the chaos raging around you.