Beauty Grows from Ashes

Recently my husband and I went for a quick getaway to celebrate our first anniversary (away from our four teenagers!). We visited the sweet little mountain town of Grand Lake in Colorado, nestled between the mountains and a beautiful lake. It is such a serene, peaceful place.

But as we drove closer, a certain scene made my heart lurch. Just beyond this small town, the surrounding hills were burned and barren and told a very different story than the picturesque scene of the small mountain town next to a lake. The scars of a tragedy this town had faced stood out in the open in a way that can’t help but impact every tourist that comes to visit.

I remember hearing about the Troublesome Fire in 2020, a terrible summer where several major fires destroyed parts of Colorado. But hearing about it on the news doesn’t even begin to tell the story of the terror the residents faced as they saw the hillsides engulfed in flames and encroaching on their town, their homes, their livelihood; the panic they felt as they desperately tried to save what they could and fled from their homes with only a few minutes warning.

I know the feeling because just a few months later my home was in the middle of the Marshall Fire, Colorado’s most destructive wildfire that burned more than 1,000 homes. By some miracle, we didn’t lose our home, but that didn’t lessen the trauma that my family experienced that day. Those memories will forever remain with us as the most terrifying thing we’ve lived through and a stark reminder of the powerful force of nature.

When I saw the burned areas around Grand Lake, I felt its pain and loss and tenderness. My heart ached for the people who lived there and the damage done to the beautiful mountain landscape, the story that had deeply impacted the life of this small town.

But I also knew the town was filled with survivors. People and a landscape that had survived this tragic event, had moved on, and were growing and thriving in spite of what happened. The scars were there, but the town was bustling with locals and tourists living their good life.

The most beautiful site of all was the flowers, grass and small trees sprouting in the burned areas. New life was growing in spite of literally being burned to the ground.

Not even fire could stop nature from regrowing, rising again, and showcasing its beauty.

And what a perfect reminder for us. We all have our scars, areas of our lives where we have been hurt, suffered, faced loss, or life didn’t go as planned…and sometimes life gets burned completely to the ground.

Some scars are visible to others, but so often they are hidden on the inside where others can’t see them, traumatic events that leave scars on our hearts, minds, souls, and memories.

It can be tempting to keep those scars, those broken, damaged parts of us, tucked away on the inside where no one can see them. To push the bad memories and feelings down deep and lock them away so we don’t have to feel the pain anymore.

But hiding those parts of us doesn’t make life any easier. We may be able to cover up those hurt parts of us for a while, but eventually they find a way to come out. They need to come out in order to heal and start to grow again. 

We aren’t meant to walk through those hard seasons alone. That’s why God gave us each other.

We need a support system, a community, to help each other heal, grow, and thrive.

During our visit we went on a hike in a forest next to the lake. In addition to wildfires, another natural disaster Colorado has faced is the mountain pine beetle. This beetle is about the size of a grain of rice, and yet they have wreaked havoc on the pine forests, killing millions of trees.

The forest we hiked through was a graveyard of pine trees, more on the ground or leaned up against others on their way down, than actually standing. The devastation of this little insect is quite alarming.

But in the midst of all the dead trees, new trees were growing. The death and destruction was making room for new growth, new life, and once again, I witnessed how nature was healing itself.

Among the new growth in both the forest and the burn site were groves of small aspen trees. Aspens are unique because they don’t grow alone, they are all connected by an underground root system. Each tree is a small part of a larger community, and they don’t grow in isolation.

Just like us.

We are all connected and we need each other to grow and thrive. We are meant to be in community, to support each other and grow together. 

Aspens will quickly grow together in burned areas to establish a new grove of trees. 

Just like the town of Grand Lake, we can grow together in the midst of our pain and suffering. We don’t have to feel alone or try to heal on our own. We grow stronger together.

Just like nature, we can grow beauty out of ashes.

What kind of support system do you have to support you when life gets hard? Do you share your inner scars with them or tend to keep them to yourself? What might it be like to bring the hidden parts of you into the open and allow your tribe to help you heal?