Damsels in Distress...Not!



The women of The Vail Church are getting a bad reputation with firefighters...well not really, but I wanted to get your attention.

Last weekend we had our women’s retreat at 4 Eagle Ranch. Some of us were staying at the main house overnight. Dinner had ended. Laughter and fellowship had abounded. Next it would be sharing and prayer time. But it was a cold evening and a chill was in the air, even inside the beautiful house. A fire in the fireplace might be nice as well as a dose of heat. One person went to turn on the gas fireplace while another was going to regulate the temperature for the heating system. Both were unsuccessful.

The fireplace instructions were hard to decipher, but the main problem was with the heat. The complicated controls were not marked clearly and instead of turning on the heat our friend pushed the button that had the flame on it, not realizing that it was really the fire alarm. The flashing panel warned us to put in the code, but the instructions didn’t include one. Soon the blaring sound coming from the wall told us that the fire department was being notified.

Calls were placed to the caretaker of the grounds, but no answer. A phone call was made to the manager of the property, but they couldn't provide the code. The security company who could supposedly supply the code didn't answer. As a last ditch effort to prevent the fire department from making the 30 minute drive from Eagle a call was made to let them know that there was indeed no fire, but that an accidental button had been pushed setting off the alarm.

The ranch hand discovered our problem and drove over. He was able to get the fireplace started, but couldn't solve the alarm issue. So we waited recalling another time at one of our retreats when the fire department had to come.

That one was several years ago in Colorado Springs at Glen Erie. We were going to have movie night. And what's movie night without popcorn? The problem that time was that the microwave popcorn was cooked a bit too long...I guess you might call it burned and it set off the fire alarm.

After a long while, so long that if there had really been a fire the place would have burned up, we glanced out the window to see the lights of the truck in the distance. Closer and closer they got until they reached their destination. Out of the truck the firefighters hopped, one after another to check out the problem. 


The firemen had received the message about the false alarm, but informed us that they were required to go to any commercial building to be sure that everything was all right. We didn’t really mind because it added a little excitement to our evening and they weren’t too upset either, since it had been a slow Friday night for them. All we could do was give them cookies, apologize and send them on their way off to the next adventure.


It reminded me that God responds when He is called too. He knows that often times we cry out to Him with false alarms, but He is ready and waiting to come and check on us, just to be sure we are all right. What a comforting thought that is!


Psalm 116:1-2 I love the Lord, for he heard my voice;
    he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me,
    I will call on him as long as I live.

www.hearthope.org

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