Being Anchored

  I never expected to find this three foot long anchor in the midst of a tree filled park. It was from a small, paddlewheel boat used in early logging operations in Algonquin. The boat would ferry huge log booms across the lakes. In those days, logging was done by clear cutting everything.
 The Logging Museum in the park was time well spent learning about this aspect of the conservation area. Logging still happens but with an environmental focus. Only selected trees are removed from an area allowing smaller ones to mature. It is now a sustainable industry, not a ravaging of the land, that is important to the well being of the forest.
  Fire is also used. Although with this terribly dry summer, I doubt there will be any controlled burning. Not if campfires are banned.
  Another conservation and camping area, Grundy Lake, had to be evacuated due to raging forest fires in the area. There are close to forty of them across Northern Ontario.
  Anchors and fire...what an odd combination. Yet both have touched my heart with understanding as I have journeyed with the Lord at my side through fire and storm.
  I give thanks for both because in the midst of trials, the profound simplicity of an anchor has reminded me that a storm will never cast me adrift alone.
  Never will the fires consume me but rather sear away the unwanted, the dead things that hamper new growth. Amen!
  " When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior." Isaiah 43:2-3