California’s devastating wildfires may have destroyed roughly 95 percent of Paradise, but one symbol was left standing among the ashes that gives its residents hope.

Our Savior Lutheran Church Pastor Brandon Merrick posted the hopeful photo on Facebook two days after flames engulfed the town along with the 54-year-old church building and the parsonage where his wife and two kids lived.

Still standing was the simple wooden cross in the middle of the parking lot.

“I told our church I really hope that that picture can be used as the picture for the fire, because, as the church, everything that man builds with our hands is perishable, but what God does for us through the cross is imperishable and cannot be taken away or burned up,” Merrick told Fox News. “And that’s what I love about the picture.” – READ MORE