Power

We were without power for almost 24 hours before it went back on this morning. High winds left trees toppled. My children’s trampoline flew to the other side of my almost 2 acre yard.

No power leaves everyone unsettled. It is easy to forget how much we depend on it until it is no longer available. There is no person in my home more inconvenienced than my five year old son, Nathan.

In the middle of our blackout last night Nathan asked if we could pray for the power to go back on. He folded his little hands, bowed his head and said “Dear God, please give us electricity back. Amen.” As soon as he finished, the lights flickered on and off a few times. The electricity didn’t stay on but it was as if God replied, “Sweet boy, I hear you.”

God gives us these moments when He does reply just to let us know He is present. Sometimes we miss them because we are so busy or our intellect chalks it up to coincidence. We can’t imagine a God in charge of the universe would care whether or not we have power. But He does. We become jaded because of all the other times the answer was “no” or “not now.” But sometimes the answer is just a glimpse or a reminder that while He hears us the final answer will have to wait.

My sweet son doesn’t have those blockades in His relationship with God. He believes with his entire sweet, innocent heart that he has a direct line to God. The beautiful part is that he does. The beautiful part is that I do too. And so do you.

I just need to have faith like a child. I have to suspend all that this world has done to me and distill faith down to its purest element – that God loves me entirely as if I am His favorite child. I love my children all uniquely and each of them with my whole heart. Every one of them is my favorite child.

It takes effort to be like a child because so much has happened to me from when my heart was soft until now. I have to be careful to not blame God for the things a broken world did. I have to think with my heart and in every other relationship that is unwise except for mine with Him.

Imagine what power lies within us if we can attain faith like a child but have the wisdom gained through years of experience.

Nathan’s prayer last night, I believe, went straight to the ear of a loving, kind, and gentle God. See, the power was not in the electricity. It was in a little boy with the faith of a child.