Recently, as I was cleaning out my closet—tidying, decluttering, and packing a few things away—I came across something tucked into my bookshelf
that I had almost forgotten was there.
A treasure—but not in the way the world measures value.
It was smoke-marked and a little worse for wear.
It is a Bible I found while seeking in the ashes.
In 2016, Gatlinburg experienced fires that ravaged our community. Homes, buildings, and lives were lost.
My church, Roaring Fork Baptist Church, was destroyed.
It was a surreal devastation—one that still brings back memories of loss, grief, pain, and tragedy.
Yet even out of that terrible event, God brought beauty from ashes.
We saw Him work in ways that could only be described as miraculous.
We saw Him advance good despite evil.
And the treasure I found that day is only one of many stories that could be told.
Just before the final demolition of what remained of our church,
I wanted to find something in the rubble to keep. Something that would remind me of the years spent in that building
—working, serving, singing, fellowshipping, praying, and worshiping.
I remember walking down what had once been the hallway to the downstairs classrooms.
Before I entered, I prayed.
I asked the Lord to help me find something special.
Something from the ashes that would symbolize all that Roaring Fork Baptist Church had come to mean in my life.
I walked through scorched surroundings, smoked debris, and ashes until I reached my Sunday school room.
There was not much left.
Tables and chairs were mangled and burned.
Tablecloths were melted.
The walls that were standing were blackened and charred.
What had once been a place of sweet fellowship
now felt dark, eerie, and lost.
But as I made my way to a corner of the room, my eyes fell on something I could hardly believe.
There lay a Bible.
Right there, in the middle of all the devastation, was a Bible
—perfectly placed, as though it had been sheltered from the ruin all around.
I picked it up.
The front was blackened from smoke,
but the back was still a beautiful blue.
A small bookmark tab stuck out from the pages, browned by the smoke.
Inside, the pages were preserved, white, clean, and untouched.
The fire that had swept through everything had not been allowed to go any farther.
And when I opened to that marked place, I saw the verse:
“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:13
I had gone into the ashes seeking something.
And God let me find His Word.
Not a trinket or a piece of furniture.
His Word.
Immediately, Isaiah 40:8 came rushing to mind—a verse I had read, memorized, and taught to Bible drillers year after year:
“The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever.”
Isaiah 40:8
What better picture of that truth could I have held in my hands?
A burned building. A ruined room. Charred walls. Melted tables. Ashes everywhere.
And there, in the middle of it all, the Word of God remained.
From the beginning, Satan has tried to distort, question, and destroy the Word of God.
But the Word of God will never be stopped.
It will never be destroyed.
Because God has the final say.
Everything in this world is temporary.
Buildings fall.
Flowers fade.
Grass withers.
Possessions perish.
Even the places we love can be reduced to ashes.
But the Word of our God is fixed, unchanging, and enduring.
And not only is it preciously written…His Word also came in the flesh.
John 1:14 tells us:
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…”
Jesus Christ, the living Word, came to dwell among men.
He died, rose again, and lives forever.
And because He lives, we have a hope that no fire, or loss, no devastation or sorrow can ever take away.
A fire.
A mangled building.
A little Sunday school room.
A Bible in the corner.
And a beautiful reminder from the ashes: Seek Him, and He will be found.
Everything else will fall away.
But the Word of our God will stand forever.
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