A few years ago I was staying with friends in the hills above Pietermaritzburg in South Africa. A number of wildfires were alight in the area because of very dry weather conditions. Some of the fires were raging quite near where people were living. Firefighters were trying to put out the flames, and helicopters were dropping water from the sky.
My friends and I had all attended a Wednesday testimony meeting at a Church of Christ, Scientist, in town earlier that afternoon, and the First Reader had read from the Bible the story of Elijah hiding in a cave but being assured that God was not in earthquake, wind, or fire, which were raging around the mountain (see I Kings 19:9–12). After all these events had passed, Elijah heard a “still small voice.”
When we got back to my friends’ home, I felt impelled to pray with the message of that story. I sat quietly on the veranda and began to pray about the local threat of fires.
