Becky Smith
Sunday School Teacher / Church Organist / Deacon's Wife
Shasta Baptist Church
Redding, CA
Trusting God When You Can’t See
Proverbs 29:18 “ Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”
I started losing my sight in 1999 when I was 51. In 2017 I was accepted for training at Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael, California. I returned home with an amazingly wonderfilled guide dog named Wilbur. Being legally blind, Wilbur is my eyes when I venture out into the world. He uses his sight to keep me from falling, or tripping over, holes, curbs, and stairs. He watches traffic, keeping me safe, when crossing a street or a parking lot. He guides me around obstacles and people easing much of the concern I have with limited sight. But Wilbur cannot see what is around a corner or on the other side of an object that blocks his view. I trust Wilbur to keep me safe in the world he can see, but I trust God’s vision, and the wisdom found in His Word, to guide me through the stumbling blocks and valleys in this world only He has perspective to see. Our perspective only allows us to see what we view from a particular point in time. Often we are surprised or overcome by life’s “valleys” of sickness, sorrow, or sin because they were obscured from our sight. We didn’t see them coming. But God sees it all and promises to never leave us nor forsake us if we trust His vision to guide us safely through or around these valleys.
It was July 26, 2018. We’d been sound asleep before the reverse 911 call rang our landline phone at 12:36am.
The recorded call said, due to a wildfire we needed to evacuate immediately. Thinking it was a mistake, my husband got up to look out the front door. We live in the Shasta mountains west of Redding, in Northern California. Wild fires are common here but we’ve only been evacuated once before, 12 years earlier, and no homes had been lost. Unable to get a cell signal, I picked up our land line and called 911. They affirmed there was a wild fire heading directly toward us, and we needed to leave. Randy returned saying he could see an orange/red glow in the sky above the mountain range surrounding us but no flames. I tried calling our daughter in Redding but the land line went dead also. Getting dressed, Randy went to collect important papers and his firearms. I packed a couple changes of clothes, our medications, our Bibles, my appointment book, needed food and equipment for Wilbur, and as many family pictures as I could fit in what space remained. We loaded everything into our van. The air was stifling outside. With the headlights on you could see white ash falling everywhere. We drove up our driveway to our guest house which we’ve used for almost 20 years to house missionary families, and guest speakers at our church. It’s a roomy 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1250 square foot home in which we placed many of our most sentimental possessions, wanting to share them with our honored guests. I never thought to grab anything from that home believing we would be back before night’s end. From the guest house we could see a few flames in the distance but from our perspective they seemed far away. At 1am we drove out to the 2 lane road in front of our property. All power was now out as well. Randy noticed several firetrucks at the north end of our street so he drove there to see what he could find out. As he talked with the firemen I realized I had a cell signal so called our daughter, Jaynee, in Redding, to tell her we’d been told to evacuate but her dad wanted to wait at the end of our driveway leaving only when it wasn’t safe to stay. I told her cell reception was gone at our driveway but that I would call her as soon as we got to town to let her know we were safe. I also sent a text to our youngest daughter, Jacquee, in Texas before losing the cell signal once again. Randy returned saying the firemen did not know how close the fire was but they’d been sent there and told to wait for orders. They urged us to evacuate but by law could not force us to. Back at our driveway Randy positioned our van facing the street, ready to pull out at a moment’s notice. There are three routes we can take to drive out of the mountains into town. With the orange/ red glow in the distant sky we could see the tops of trees on the ridge of mountains directly across the street. Every minute or so small flames would pop up just above the tree tops but then quiet back down. Randy assured me, “when the flames engulf those trees at the top of the ridge then we will leave.” For 47 years I had trusted him to keep me safe. I had no reason to doubt him now even though, despite the van windows being rolled up, the air inside was acrid and smoky, burning my eyes. Wilbur had his front legs on my lap, his nose pressed against the glass of the passenger window, panting heavily. He only does that when stressed. Maybe he is just stressed about being woken up in the middle of the night I thought but my racing heart had a hard time believing that. Randy got out every time another fire truck rolled by as they all stopped urging us to leave. He wanted them to know he had been diligent in keeping our property cleaned and cleared and that we had a huge pond and a swimming pool as an additional water source for them. Fireman look for homes that have clearing and defend them. One by one all our neighbors left. We sat in the van and waited, running the air conditioner as little as possible, watching the dwindling gas gauge. Our daughter, Jaynee, and son-in-love, Daniel, had been up since my call, watching the skyline in front of where they lived. From their perspective the flames were growing higher and higher and their concern grew right along with them. Jacquee, learning we had not been heard from, sent Jaynee a text that said, “DANIEL!!! GO GET THEM!!!!”. Believing something horrible might have happened, at 3:30am Daniel, and our grandson, Elijah, headed toward the flames while Jaynee and Jacquee prayed. Driving to the foot of the mountains, he was stopped by a road block. He managed to convince them to let him pass but was told, “Good luck getting past the next one.” The next road block was a mile and a half from our home. He desperately pleaded with the police officers that his in-laws, in their 70’s, might not have left yet. They tried to tell him everyone had evacuated. He continued to insist that he had to get to our property and be sure we’d gotten out. Finally a highway patrolman offered to give him an escort. As they drove into the fire Daniel was able to see that what we had observed as 2 foot flames above the trees on the ridge in front of us were actually shooting 100 or more feet into the air growing and traveling rapidly. Reaching our property. and seeing our van, Daniel jumped out of his car begging us to leave. Randy calmly told Daniel he planned to leave when the flames he was seeing were taller than the trees on the ridge, setting them ablaze. “But dad!!!!!”, Daniel pleaded, “they are!!!!!!!! They are 100 feet or higher—you just can’t see them!! The ridge is in the way!!!” Randy tried to assure Daniel, “Go back down and tell Jaynee we are fine and will get out in time. I promise.” Daniel opened the van door and pleaded with me to bring Wilbur and come with him. I wouldn’t leave without Randy. Daniel turned to Randy and with tears streaming down his face, pleaded, “Please, dad! You have to come now!!!! I won’t leave without you!!” When he saw the tears and Daniel’s distress he got into the van and said, “Honey, we’re going to leave now.” My relief was instantaneous. Wilbur was panting and shaking and I was finding it harder to breathe. We were told two of the possible three ways out, including the one Daniel had just taken, were now blocked by fire so there was only one escape route left. Daniel followed us and as we came down the mountain I turned around. Even with my limited eyesight I could see the fire monster that would soon come over that ridge within the next 30 minutes, bringing a fire tornado that would destroy our guest house, and nearly every tree and shrub on our 5.7 acres. Only our home, three outbuildings, and the trees in front of our home would survive, sustaining smoke damage but escaping total destruction. Taking a stand with their engines on the clearance Randy had made, the firemen worked hard to put
out spot fires that landed on these structures, thereby limiting fire damage to the outside only. It was as if God had split the raging fire into two parts that went around these buildings instead of through them. The fire came together again behind our home, burning trees and vegetation around our pond, continuing its rampage to the properties behind us. We arrived at Jaynee’s exhausted but the joy and relief of knowing we were safe showed on everyone’s faces. It would be several days before we’d know what was gone and what survived. It would be 21 days before we were allowed back into our home. Over 1000 homes and dozens of businesses were destroyed in this CARR wildfire. Our street, and the mountains surrounding us, will never be the same. Eight lives were lost but, thanks to God giving me that moment of cell reception at the top of our street, a compassionate law officer, and prayer, our lives were not added to that total. From our perspective the danger of the flames from this wildfire were obscured because the mountains were in the way —but God knew, and orchestrated the needed events, to send Daniel to show us a different perspective and bring us out of danger. God’s Word is given to teach us daily how to avoid danger that we might think is no big deal but God’s perspective sees the whole picture even as we are blinded by our limited sight. When we share the Gospel with an unsaved person we have the Bible’s perspective on hell that most only know as a swear word. Do we plead with people, and pray fervently for them to listen, knowing what they face without a Savior? Helen Keller was once asked what is the greatest handicap one could have. She replied, “SIGHT WITHOUT VISION”. When I follow Wilbur he guides me with his eyes but without my commands he has no idea where to lead me. I have to know where I am going. When I follow God He guides and leads through His Word so I’m able to use His vision to stay on the correct path. Psalm 32:8 says, “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with Mine eye.” Not everyone can run to the flames and reach those that need to know the truth of salvation, a gift received through faith, but we can all pray for those that do. With our limited sight the best way to have clear vision from God’s perspective comes when we obey God’s Word and learn to “walk by faith, not by sight”. (II Corinthians 5:7)
