Our family spent a few days walking in the Berg recently and again and again we would look down into a valley below us and it would seem as if someone had drawn a line in the grass - on one side of the line, the grass was green and on the other it was brown.
If we could, you and I would always choose to be healthy green grass, rather than dry brown grass. But would we change our minds if we knew that the line through the valley comes from burning fire breaks and that the green grass is the area where the fire burned, but the brown grass was spared the flames? Grass that is healthy and full of life has been through fire.
Michael Easter's book "The Comfort Crisis" makes the argument that we must build challenge into our lives if we want to thrive. Sometimes however, challenges and struggle are uninvited, unwelcome guests. At such times, Isaiah's words give us courage: "When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you; your troubles will not overwhelm you. When you pass through fire, you will not be burned; the hard trials that come will not hurt you." (Is 43:2). And we can also put our trust in the God who redeems the darkest of situations, and hold on to the promise of new life springing up like green grass after a fire.