The Firefighter's First Shift

In 2019, Maria Gonzalez graduated top of her class from the Houston Fire Academy. Her captain pinned the badge on her chest and said, "You belong here." She had never felt more certain of who she was.

Forty-eight hours later, she was crawling through a collapsing apartment building on Westheimer Road, zero visibility, her mask fogging, the floor buckling beneath her knees. Every instinct screamed at her to turn back. She could hear the roar of the fire above her like something alive and hungry. In that suffocating darkness, the only thing she had to hold onto was what her captain had spoken over her two days before: You belong here.

She found the child under a bed frame. They both made it out.

Mark tells us that the moment Jesus rose from the waters of baptism, the heavens tore open and the voice of the Almighty declared, "You are my beloved Son." And then — immediately, Mark insists — the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. Not after a celebration. Not after a retreat. Immediately.

The wilderness was not a detour from God's plan. It was the plan. The Father's voice at the Jordan was meant to sustain Jesus through forty days of Satan's testing, so that He could emerge ready to announce the kingdom.

Sometimes God confirms who you are precisely because He knows what you are about to walk through. The identity comes first so it can carry you through the fire.