Smoke by Day, Fire by Night

I stood at the cottage window watching the sun struggle to reflect off the water of the mirror-smooth lake. The smoky haze hanging everywhere dimmed the sun’s brightness into a dull orange sphere. The far shore of the lake appeared as a veiled outline, cancelling activities like waterskiing, kayaking, and swimming across the lake, to be replaced by board games in a window-closed cottage. Day camps and other outdoor activities in the city were cancelled. Children complained, “It’s not fair that we can’t play outside,” and adults shared similar frustrations as, day after summer day, hazy smoke covered the sky, creating a breathing hazard and diminishing precious summer vacation time.

But despite these small annoyances, mealtimes at the cottage always brought plenty of food and family bonding.

Angela stood at the front window of her Garden Hill First Nation home to watch the red glow of fire, and the billow of smoke rise just beyond the hills. Wildfire, the source of that bothersome smoke, raged uncontrollably across multiple provinces, forcing families to wait for hours on the tarmacs of their local airports for transport planes or in parking lots for buses to rescue them while flames and smoke crept closer to their homes. Thousands of people were evacuated and housed in temporary shelters in other towns, cities, and provinces. Parents had to manage children in the confined spaces of motel rooms or in the communal areas of gymnasiums or convention centers for weeks. Everyone experienced anxiety. Would their homes, belongings, pets, and community survive?

Nonetheless, the government, social agencies, and concerned individuals provided food,

toiletries, and other daily essentials.

Lena woke to the sound of an explosion hitting her apartment building. A quick look out her window showed smoke and flames rising in her Ukrainian city. This cloud of smoke and ongoing destruction of homes, apartments, and infrastructure continued all summer. Neighbours were killed daily, and families were torn apart. Mothers and children were separated from soldier husbands. This three-year war has seen children abducted, two hundred thousand soldiers, Russian and Ukrainian, killed, and thousands of others displaced.

Nations have responded to the destruction. Over 1.2 million refugees from Ukraine have fled to Germany. Three hundred thousand Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Canada, with thirty thousand arriving in Manitoba. Funds have been raised, and food, medicine, and armaments have been sent in support of Ukraine.

Yousef endured a sleepless night listening to exploding bombs, the smell of smoke a constant reminder that his city was ablaze. This summer’s wildfire that displaced twenty-one thousand people in Manitoba is insignificant compared to the displacement and suffering caused by the two-year war in Gaza.

On October 7, 2023, I stood on the grounds of the ancient city of Megiddo in Israel, a site of

many historic battles that has become symbolic of the final confrontation of Armageddon. My eyes were drawn to the noise of warplanes flying south. It was on that morning, twelve hundred people were killed in a kibbutz outside Gaza, prompting the present devastating war, the war of revenge.

With over sixty-five thousand people dead, and homes and buildings reduced to rubble, men, women, and children are still being killed daily, while others are left destitute. Countries have voiced their anger, the United Nations has loudly complained, but the horror persists. Mothers are so malnourished that they cannot nurse their babies, and children are so starved that they cannot walk. There is no respite, no safe shelter, no consistent international aid for food and medical needs, and no homes to return to in Gaza.

The smoky haze ruining summer plans at the cottages and elsewhere seems petty compared to the struggles many face this summer without a home, food, or security.

Confronted with these injustices, greed, and the selfish demands of both individuals and nations, I questioned, as did Job, where is God when both the innocent and the wicked are destroyed? Why does it seem as though God remains silent during such widespread horror? The answers, as Job discovered, are not simple. Shakespeare has Hamlet say, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” The Apostle Paul also spoke similarly when he said, “Now we see through a glass darkly…”

History shows that terrible things have happened; cruelty and suffering are not new. Good and evil exist side by side. History also demonstrates, as the biblical prophets promised, that there is hope. To realize that hope, God raises up individuals and groups to speak out against injustice.

Moses was called by God to deliver the people of Israel from Egyptian slavery. A timid, hesitant Gideon was encouraged by God to lead a fight against the Midianites, who were stealing food, livestock, and causing widespread starvation among the Israelites. With God’s help and a small army, he achieved victory.

William Wilberforce successfully led the fight against cruelty during one of the darkest chapters of human history, when black people were enslaved for profit. He ran a successful campaign in the British Parliament to end the Atlantic slave trade and abolish slavery throughout the British Empire. Martin Luther King, through peaceful protests, helped dismantle racial segregation in the southern United States.

Viola Desmond, a Canadian civil rights activist and businesswoman from Nova Scotia, challenged racial segregation by refusing to leave a white-only area at a cinema in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. Her success has now made her face featured on our ten-dollar bill.

While suffering is real and human failure is prevalent, suffering and failure are not the end of the story. It may seem impossible for one individual to remedy the destruction in Gaza, the conflict in Ukraine, or the climate crisis on their own, but as individuals, we can respond to what we see wrong. This was so well illustrated this summer as individuals responded to the hardship and suffering of people in Winnipeg. One lady loaded her SUV with diapers, water, toiletries, and other essential items to be delivered to evacuees in her city. A summer vacationing teacher went to the evacuee centers to lead games and outdoor activities for the children. As Viola Desmond liked to say, “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”

Amid the smoke and flames of our current crises, our hope is rooted in the prophetic call that God's desire for us is compassion for the vulnerable, a commitment to justice, and the reminder that God’s love for the world and its people is everlasting.