As a resident of the new BADLANDS--the SmokeyDroughtLand of the Rockies just east of the Hayman fire (where around 100 homes and over 400 other structures have burned, displacing almost 10,000 folks)--I want to give a reminder that might give us pause as to why God allows wildfires. Wildfires are a physical visible parallel illustration of the spiritual devastation loose within our land:
"...Satan--the master arsonist--has caused massive destruction by fueling the fires of lust and passion. Homes are being leveled. Families are being displaced and destroyed. Our country is being ravaged by the wildfires of immorality. Unless we take the necessary precautions, we could be their next victims." --Greg Laurie, 1994, Word Publishing, THE GREAT COMPROMISE, p. 135
And Laurie wrote that prior to the door of Internet porn being flung wide open in our midst. We can't comprehend Satan's burning destruction apart from grasping real destruction of God's creation in our midst by wildfires.
"There's something strange about wildfire," Laurie wrote in '94. "You can't trust it. Just when you think you've got it under control, it will turn on you and begin to move." (p. 134)
Immorality on the rampage is just as elusive to control. The accumulated acreage of men's souls and hearts claimed by "the enemy of our souls" cannot compare to the forests consumed in Arizona coupled with the forests just Northwest of Pikes Peak--the famed peak that inspired Katherine Lee Bates' "America the Beautiful."
Perhaps spiritually we have become "America the Ugly"--and the charred, scarred rubble and stubble left by fire could be one example of "Judgment begins in the household of God" (1 Pet. 4:17) (notice this fire is just immediately west of the greatest haven of evangelical ministries in the world--Colorado Springs)...a judgment that will eventually end with fire for all of earth (I'm no Armeggeddon-around-the-corner enthusiast): "By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men." (2 Pet. 3:7)
There isn't always a spiritual reason God purposes in allowing drought conditions within regions of His world. But just as we cannot assume there is one, we cannot assume there isn't.
Just remember w/every purchase of property: It is "reserved" by its true owner for an across-the-ball BBQ--"kept for the day of judgment."
You said many good things, but not the above italics. Anyway, thanks.