The Darling Fire

 

For he hath not despised nor abhorred

the affliction of the afflicted;

neither hath he hid his face from him;

but when he cried unto him, he heard.

— Psalm 22:24

 

 

It was just about a week before Christmas. Our neighbor's house had been destroyed by a freak fire. It started in their old dryer, in the basement, and shot up both stories of their beautiful, classic older home in nothing flat.

 

I think the family cat got killed, but other than that, there were no injuries because no one was home at the time, praise God. Except . . . everything they owned . . . EVERYTHING! . . . was gone.

 

 Just imagine: it's cold weather, but you have no coats or winter clothes. Christmas is coming, but the gifts you lovingly shopped for, wrapped and hid are now ashes. Your Christmas ornaments and decorations: gone. Your furniture, bathroom items, kitchen items, towels, blankets . . . everything gone.

 

These neighbors were, of course, insured. But it was going to take a while to get everything together. I think I remember hearing that a lot of their family photographs and important papers were spared because of the smart way they stored them. But in terms of everyday items, they were wiped out.

 

I got the call from another neighbor late that evening, when I had just come back from a rare formal event. I was in my best dress. But as soon as I heard that the fire had started because of excess lint built up inside their ancient dryer, I was downstairs in my crummy laundry room, on the grungy cement floor with my arm up to my shoulder plunged inside OUR ancient dryer, cleaning out the lint. Our dryer looked like a spaceship from a 1930s comic book, it was so old. What happened to our neighbors could easily happen to us! The next day, we ordered a new dryer, just in case.

 

I couldn't stop thinking about this poor family, and the rotten timing of this tragedy, at Christmastime. Their last name is Darling, and they live up to their name. They are devout Christians, and a very nice, warm, high-achieving family.

 

The Darlings lived about a block away. Their kids were different ages from ours, but they attended the same grade school. I had seen the mom and dad around the neighborhood at a few parties and at school events, but otherwise, didn't really know them other than to say "hi."

 

A couple of days after the fire, I was flipping through our grade school's fund-raising cookbook, looking for a good dessert recipe to bring to our family's Christmas dinner. I came upon "Hilltop House Bavarian Mint Dessert."

 

The Hilltop House was a much-beloved restaurant in the heart of midtown Omaha, where a lot of families went for birthdays and holidays. One of my favorite childhood memories was going there at Christmas and seeing the colorful stocking caps they put on the decorative horsehead posts around the parking lot. This apparently was one of their famous dessert recipes.

 

It had chocolate, too, the "must" ingredient to please our relatives. Ooh! This was the one! It sounded delicious:

 

 

Hilltop House Bavarian Mint Dessert

 

½ lb. butter, softened                                 2½ tsp. peppermint extract

2 C. powdered sugar                                 6 egg whites (stiffly beaten)

6 egg yolks                                                Vanilla wafer crumbs

5 squares semisweet chocolate,                Whipped cream    

   melted and slightly cooled                     Maraschino cherry halves

 

In a 7" x 12" pan, pour crushed vanilla wafers onto the bottom, reserving about ¼ cup. Press down with a glass to form a crust. Separate egg yolks from whites, reserving whites in a mixing bowl. With an electric mixer, beat egg whites 'til stiff. In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with the electric mixer. Add egg yolks, melted chocolate and peppermint extract, and stir 'til blended. Fold in whipped egg whites. Pour over vanilla wafer crumbs. Refrigerate for 1-3 hours. Sprinkle additional vanilla wafer crumbs on top. Serve with whipped cream and a maraschino cherry half.

 

 

Then I saw who contributed the recipe: Mrs. Darling, the neighbor lady who'd just lost everything in a fire!

 

It was a simple thing to double the recipe, making one batch for our family, and another for the Darlings. I put it in a nice casserole dish that my grandmother had gotten for me when she opened a small account at the local savings and loan just to get the incentive casserole dishes they offered.

 

With a heartfelt card to "our Darling neighbors," a copy of the recipe, and the dessert, I brought our humble gift over to where the family was staying temporarily.

 

She took one look, and burst into tears.

 

It seems that that recipe was their family's traditional Christmas dessert. But, with so many other precious belongings, the recipe had perished in the fire - along with all of their dishes, including . . . get this . . . that exact same style of casserole dish, that some relative of THEIRS had gotten for THEM.

 

They had JUST talked about that dessert being one of the things that the fire took away from them. This was going to be the first Christmas without that familiar tradition, among many others, and it was going to hurt.

 

But here I was, delivering the taste of Christmas in a dish just like the ones their family had eaten from, countless times. Maybe this is something only a mother can understand, but in Mrs. Darling's shining eyes, I could see how important it was to have this one little thing made right.

 

That's what neighbors are for. I got tingles.

 

We embraced. It was thrilling to be a part of the process of making the Darling family whole again. Later, we heard of many more little "coincidences" involving other friends and neighbors who reached out to the family in meaningful ways that were 'way beyond coincidence.

 

"How did you know?" she kept asking. "I didn't!" I replied, humbled once again by the Lord's perfect timing.

 

I didn't know . . . but He did. He knew their every need. And He was using their neighbors, coworkers, friends and family to make sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that He loved them, and He would be there for them.

 

Oh, His endless gifts! How glad I was to have been a part of that healing process. Bet you have had the same reward when you've reached out to a neighbor in need. Every chance you get, keep doing it!

 

How much fun it is to see how Jesus can use anything - even a simple little recipe and a bank giveaway casserole dish - to bless people beyond measure.

 

Oh, the precious ways He lets His people know that He is with them. He's with them in triumph as well as tragedy, bringing them through all kinds of fires . . . showing us that, in His eyes, each one of us is darling indeed. †