Power Outage

This morning when I woke up, the strobe light outside my and Juli's room was on.  This light is supposed to come on only when something walks in front of its motion sensor.  However, it has never worked quite right, so I figured something else was up.  Besides, I had already woken up earlier in the morning (without getting up) and had noticed that the digital clock on the table beside our bed was blinking.  The most reasonable assessment was that the electricity had blinked during the night.  The strobe light (and others like it, all around the house) all come on when something messes up the regular power circuit, and of course the clock would have gone out as well if the electricity blinked.

However, it had only gone out for about a minute.  I knew this because the clock doesn't go automatically to 12 o'clock -- rather, it starts back where it had been when the electricity went out.  It was only about a minute off, so I guessed that the electricity had just blinked off momentarily.  I thought nothing of it as I turned on the bedside lamp.

At about 7 o'clock, when Grandmother, Granddaddy and I were in the breakfast nook just about to finish our breakfast, the lights sputtered for a second and then went out all together.  I assumed that it was just another quick blink.  That wasn't the case this time, though -- we finished our breakfast in the dark, and started the next part of our morning routine (going into the den with coffee/tea to read our Bibles).  The lights still hadn't come back on.  Granddaddy called the electric company, and a very polite young lady told him that the "boys" would be out by 7:30 or 8; could you wait that long?  Granddaddy said yes -- what else can you say?  :-)

I am very grateful for electricity, but I think that occasionally losing it for the short space of an hour does one good.  The house was very still -- with no electronics running, there was no background noise except the quiet sparking of the logs in the wood stove (everyone else was still in bed on the other side of the house). 

Losing electricity for a little while helps you remember what a blessing it is when you do have it.  It's automatic for us now -- we walk into a room, flip up the light switch, and expect light to flood the room instantly.  We go into the kitchen to eat breakfast: we open the refrigerator, start the microwave and the toaster oven, turn on the coffee percolator, put our dirty dishes into the dishwasher, etc.  We go into the bathroom to brush our teeth, turn on the light, and shut the door for privacy.  It blows my mind to think of all the electricity that surrounds us all day, in our simplest daily activities!

~Thank You, God, for allowing me to live in this day and age where we have such conveniences.  Thank You for Your grace, by which I am blessed to be able to afford these luxuries, when so many people around the world are living in much less comfort than I.  Thank You especially for Your light, which You have promised will shine eternally!