All Praise, Honor, Glory, --- and Power

I awoke last night with a start to the ringing of the cell phone.  I quickly rose from the couch where I was napping and answered: “Hello?”  The voice there said: “Is this Tom?” as I glanced at the flashing “5:00” on the oven clock.  “Oh shoot!  The power went out,” I exclaimed.  The man on the phone said:  “I thought so; my cousin said his went out also.  Get here when you can.”  The man was calling from the adoration chapel, where I was already 15 minutes late.

While I arrived, considerably late because of the power outage at my house, my relief person was on time, and so I cut short my evening of prayers and went home, asking for God’s protection on my travels and a safe night.  But as I neared home I saw that the streetlights were out in my subdivision.  I pulled into my driveway, and saw that my house lights were dark.  And not surprisingly, the garage door opener didn’t work.  I left the car in the drive, unlocked the front door and felt my way into the kitchen, and the shelf where I kept the flashlight.  All was quiet in the house, except for the ticking of the old Regulator clock above the fireplace.  I lit two candles, and poured myself a nightcap.  I suddenly wasn’t sleepy.

I set my cell phone alarm for 5:45A, and four hours sleep before I’d wake for morning mass.  I’d be on time for that!  And then, by candlelight, I read some of the meditations in Thomas a’Kempis’ book, My Imitation of Christ, which had lain on the coffee table.

Holding the small book near the candle, the light was bright enough to easily see the words.  It’s funny, but the words seemed more “serious” when read by candlelight.  And the words I read there were about my need for humility, and to trust in the power of God.

I lay under the covers on the couch, and shivered a bit.  I looked at the candle’s steady flame; and I saw the shadows it cast around the room.  It suddenly dawned on me:  earlier in the evening the garage door opener had worked so I could get my car out to go to church.  The power outage, which had killed the oven’s timer alarm, ended so I could go to church, but power went out again before I got back.  On the return from church I could no longer open the garage door.  The God of Power:  He had given me power to visit Him.

And as I read, I saw the words which explained how much He longed for my company.  All praise, honor, glory --- and power --- be to Him!

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I woke again in the dark; glancing at the time on the cell phone, it was about 4:45A.  It was getting noticeably colder in the house.  “Lord, let there be light,” --- the words came into my mind.  And then I heard the refrigerator come to life, as the lights flickered on.  And I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.

Later, in the church, Psalm 18 was among the morning’s readings, and I read:

You, O Lord, are my lamp,
my God who lightens my darkness.

No one can ever say to me that God doesn’t answer prayers.