The Hand of God

On Christmas Day about 6:30pm, Josh received a phone call that one of his apartments was on fire! We were in the middle of having company over, but Josh had to leave to go inspect the damage. It turns out, a tenant had left a burning cigarette on the couch, and the apartment caught fire. THANKFULLY no one was injured in the fire, but the apartment itself is going to need a LOT of work to restore it. Permits, inspections, work, and more money are going to be the story of this building for a while.

Here are a couple before and after pics:


The kitchen before the fire:


And after. Surprisingly, all that damage you see was smoke damage. The fire itself stayed out of the kitchen! Smoke and water damage can be pretty bad...
The living room window before:


After. This was where the fire began, so the damage here is the worst.


We had several things go wrong around Christmas time (though this was probably the worst), causing us to reflect on what the Lord might be trying to teach us. Was this chastisement? A test of our faith? A simple reminder that life on this planet is hard? We didn't know. Still don't, but as always we have to receive what happened with a heart of thanksgiving that the Lord is with us and knows BEST.


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