It's all gonna burn

Some good friends of ours in Missouri just lost their barn to a fire two days ago.

Here is the basic report:

I ask that you would continue to lift up my family right now as they've lost the entire barn that my brother Joel built. Joel is still in Haiti right now, so it is hard for my family to know how to break the sad news to him.
My dad believes the fire was started by a heat lamp that they had on the new baby goats. By the time Susie saw the fire out the window it was too big to save any of the goats, so they lost all their goats in the fire, as well as the entire woodshop upstairs, and my mom's summer kitchen and new grinder. The only things remaining were a few walls to the summer kitchen and the firemen were knocking down the walls to make sure the fire was all the way out. (6 firetrucks and a number of neighbors showed up).
This is a very big loss, but they are grateful it wasn't the shop that caught on fire, and the house is fine, and the family is safe.
Please pray especially for my little brother Ben, who was taking care of the animals in Joel's absence (he feels very bad about the fire) and for Joel. Susie said he had already lost 2-3 baby goats and 7 baby sheep while he's been gone, and now this tragedy on top.

Here are pictures of the fire. Aren’t these gripping?


And here are before and after pictures:


This kind of thing is a good reminder that everything material here on earth is temporary and will ultimately burn.

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Peter 3:10-12, NASB)

If, as the Bible teaches, the only things on this earth that will last forever are the souls of our fellow humans, it ought to affect and direct our priorities in life in very real and tangible ways.

Lord Jesus, help us all to benefit from my friends’ tragedy as we remember afresh the fragility of possessions.