Photo: National Park Service
the Pacific Northwest,
L DAY in STRANGE BUT BEAUTIFU home for the past five years. My day A AS W 20 20 Y DA R BO LA led ce this native Texan has cal de
nic Casca n—the pla especially in Eugene, Orego the jagged peaks of the volca g tin gh hli hig , les mi for e with visibility ge because of the started with a gorgeous hik , Coastal Range. It was stran ful uti bea as y all equ t bu , months had matic Mountains and the less dra how un-normal the last few on up ed ect refl I ed hik I ndemic, and as ep and find new skills continuing coronavirus pa have caused us all to dig de ic em nd pa a g rin du ing liv and been. Pastoring, parenting, we had. ew kn led our family to ser ve and strength we never nksgiving that God had cal tha of l ful d un aro ked loo day. I here you look. But, it was a beautiful creation seems to be everyw in rk iwo nd ha d’s Go ere er, but to be honest, I in Oregon, a place wh rt on my phone for fire dang ale an ing see ber em rem I up. Later, the winds kicked I had awoken too early, didn’t think much of it. ke up, it was dark. Thinking wo I en Wh l. rea sur s wa , ver g, but with an ught. It was dark as evenin Tuesday morning, howe tho I n tha er lat lly ua act s see that it wa ls. It was raining—ASH. I looked at the clock only to ked out the sun and the hil cho it ck thi so s wa e ok sm The eerie reddish orange glow. rd, apocalyptic. wo ter had been evacuated, It was, for lack of a bet t many of our parishioners tha d rne lea We ay. aw les grew and so 15 mi As the day wore on, the fire A wildfire was burning ht. nig the of le dd mi the in with no warning, d people’s anxiety. did the evacuation zone an West was on fire. The news was dismal—the -19, but despite the of course because of COVID g gin llen cha s wa g rin sto Pa fund, took meals rted a successful fire relief sta We . rch chu the ll sti s, phone pandemic, we are reached out through email d an ve, dri n tio lec col a d reflected on to those in need, organize ns. And through all this, we aco de of ard bo r ou d an ip, calls, virtual worsh aren’t. We all our call as Christians. of God’s creation. We just rds wa ste od go ng bei t no Friends, we are ing the environment. ryday lives that focus on sav eve r ou in s ion cis de ke ma d hot, need to se fires that burn so fast an the t Bu . en pp ha y the al— Wildfires are norm There is extreme in minutes, are not normal. ies nit mu com d an s me ho super-charged destroying n. The fires and all the other tai con to t cul diffi m the getting fires and makes ate change. But instead of clim of drought which fuels these lity rea the to ing . The fact rld are symptoms point truth that is staring us down natural disasters in our wo the ay aw n lai exp d an s use God calls y, we make exc mind. We must do better. my our act together as a societ les gg bo on ati cre d’s st look deep ues like tending to Go ming the other side, we mu that we have politicized iss bla of te rou ier eas the ing constantly tak us to do better! Instead of a difference. is widespread on what we can do to make stay inside. The destruction within ourselves and focus to d ha we t tha us do zar ha the air was so er that hit in the midst For almost two weeks, r reminding us of the disast sca a is It e. sam the be ver l ne is my hope that it and the landscape here wil e from those ashes, and it ris l wil life w Ne . life rn de years of mo of one of the most difficult care for God’s creation. g to do all in our power to lin cal r ou of er ind rem a will ser ve as ina (MDiv ’06) – The Rev. Marta Z. Ukrop Oregon sbyterian Church, Eugene, Co-Pastor, Westminster Pre
10 | Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
