Dick Van Dyke nearly died in Malibu fires

A reflection on the refuge found only in faith

Dick Van Dyke turned ninety-nine last Friday, but he nearly didn’t live to see his birthday. Fires that raged across Malibu and burned more than 2,600 acres forced the beloved actor and his wife to evacuate their home. He later told an interviewer, “I was trying to crawl to the car. I had exhausted myself. I couldn’t get up. Three neighbors came and carried me out and came back and put out a little fire in the guest house and saved me.”

Other celebrities affected by the blaze included Cher, Mark Hamill, Jane Seymour, Brook Burke, and Mira Sorvino.

In other headline news, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was part of a congressional delegation to a World War II battlefield in Luxembourg last Friday when she fell and broke her hip. She was rushed to the hospital, where she underwent successful hip replacement surgery. Her accident came just days after longtime Senate leader Mitch McConnell fell in the US Capitol, cutting his face and spraining his wrist.

Meanwhile, Hall of Fame receiver Randy Moss announced Friday that he is battling cancer. Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow’s home was broken into last Monday night while his team was playing the Dallas Cowboys on national television. Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and quarterback Patrick Mahomes also suffered home invasions only days apart from each other in October.

Why I missed the Geminids

Clearly, celebrity doesn’t protect us from calamity, as if we needed further proof of the fragility and finitude of life.

Billed as “one of the most prolific meteor showers of the year,” the Geminids peaked in the night skies over the weekend. However, the clouds and rain where I live kept me from seeing them. Ditto for the final full moon of 2024 also known as the Long Night Moon, which hid behind the clouds on my walk early this morning.

For all our scientific and technical advances, humans are still subject to forces as ancient as the planet we inhabit, such as the cyclone that devastated the island of Mayotte and the winter storm that prompted the first-ever tornado warning in San Francisco. We still cannot prevent hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes. We still cannot make it rain or make it stop raining.

In this sense, the ancients had an advantage over us: They knew they were reliant on God. They knew that a broken leg could mean an infection that would cause their death. They knew that a drought could mean starvation and that a wild animal could mean a gruesome demise.

King David, who spent much of his childhood as a shepherd living in nature, learned firsthand to rely on God as his God. Psalm 5 is an example:

Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch (vv. 1–3).

He then encourages us to follow his example:

Let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. For you bless the righteous, O LORD; you cover him with favor as with a shield (vv. 11–12).

Three steps into the refuge of God

His metaphor is apt: a “refuge” helps only those who take shelter within its protection. A fortress at a distance doesn’t protect us from enemies close at hand. An umbrella left at home doesn’t help us in the rain.

To avail ourselves of such provision, we must take three obvious steps:

1. We admit that we need help beyond our own resources.
2. We turn to that help in the moment that the challenge or threat arises.
3. We stay beneath its shelter until the threat passes.

By contrast, trusting ourselves in the face of challenges we cannot defeat is self-defeating by definition. And yet we try.

One of Satan’s most effective deceptions in our day of scientific and material advances is to encourage us to trust science and materialism to do what they cannot. Western existentialism is no help here—for generations, we’ve been taught to rely on ourselves, to try harder to work longer to do more in the belief that we can achieve the lives we seek.

However, only a sinless God can forgive sins and transform sinners. Only an eternal God can grant eternal life. Only a God who “is” love can be trusted to lead us into our best lives (1 John 4:8).

I believe it grieves our Father when we refuse to make him our refuge amid the storms of our days. His omniscient wisdom can guide us in facing what are otherwise insurmountable problems. His omnipotent power can enable us to defeat enemies that are otherwise unconquerable. His omnipresent grace can sustain us in the most discouraging and painful days of life.

But he can give only what we will receive and lead only where we will follow.

“God is the true father and mother of nature”

So, let’s learn a lesson from the Malibu wildfires and the celebrity challenges in the news. Let’s make our Father our refuge in every storm and trust him to redeem all he allows. Then, let’s face life with optimism born of biblical hope and courage empowered by transcendent grace.

The medieval saint Julian of Norwich captured the joyful spirit with which we can partner with our Creator in the beauty of his creation:

God is the ground and the substance, the very essence of nature;

God is the true father and mother of nature.
We are all bound to God by nature,

and we are all bound to God by grace.
And this grace is for all the world,

because it is our precious mother, Christ.
For this fair nature was prepared by Christ

for the honor and nobility of all,

and for the joy and bliss of salvation.

How fully will you experience such “joy and bliss” today?