Many of you will, no doubt, have heard or read via the media of the recent volcanic eruption on La Palma in the Spanish Canary Islands. The Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted with 6,000 of the 80,000 inhabitants evacuated and more than 350 homes destroyed. A thick plume of smoke extended 2.4 miles into the air. Lava has been flowing down the mountain and through the villages. Many people have lost everything they own but, thankfully, there have been no fatalities.

Perhaps you have seen dramatic pictures of one house in the area that has been dubbed ‘THE MIRACLE HOUSE’, after it escaped the flow of lava. It is owned by a retired Danish couple, who were not in residence at the time of the eruption. Although it is surrounded by ‘rivers’ of lava from the volcano, it remains undamaged. A friend of the couple commented, ‘It is sad to know that the house is there alone, without anyone being able to take care of it!’

When I came across this remarkable story of preservation, I recalled the words of Jesus: ‘Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall’, Matthew chapter 7 verses 24-27.

When trials and sorrow afflict our lives, we need never be alone. If our faith is in Christ and His words, He has promised, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’, Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5.