Rebuilding

The families who lost their homes in the Lower North Fork fire last week must feel so lost at this point.  They've no doubt filed all the insurance claims and are probably being housed in temporary housing or a hotel. I'm sure it will take at least 2 years before most of them can move in to their newly rebuilt homes, but the scorched-earth devastation all around them will be a constant reminder of the wildfire that robbed them of all they possessed.  Homes and furniture and appliances can be replaced, which is why it would be foolish to risk our lives to save material possessions.  How different for those who lost their parents or siblings in the fire, as the precious lives of our loved ones are truly irreplaceable.  For those few families life will not return to "normal" for a very long time, if ever.

I was thinking about all that was lost in the devastating fire last week as I read a passage from Ezra chapter 3 this morning (I'm attempting to read through the Bible again this year) where it talks about the exiles returning to Jerusalem from the captivity in Babylon.  King Cyrus of Persia had given them permission to rebuild the temple of the Lord.  They first set about rebuilding the altar so they could offer burnt offerings, and then in the 7th month after their return they began rebuilding the foundation of the temple.  It says that when the builders had completed the foundation, they stopped working and threw a big party to celebrate and "all the people shouted with a great shout...because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid."  But not everyone was singing and shouting.  Many of the older priests and heads of households who had seen the original temple wept out loud.  I stopped reading at that point and wondered what their tears were all about: maybe they wept over all that had been lost when the first temple was destroyed and they were carried off as captives.  Or perhaps they were just overwhelmed by it all, and by the goodness of the Lord to allow them to see the foundations of the new temple being laid.

 Then I thought of the families who are waking up in a hotel room this morning because they have no home to return to.  I can imagine the tears they have shed over all that's been lost, and how hard it must be to imagine trying to rebuild from scratch.  I pray that God will restore their joy too.