14 Aug Let there be Light

It started like a mostly ordinary Monday, except that I had a morning professional phone call that ran long and my husband got started to work late because he had masterfully been keeping our sons from banging on my door during the call. Then we had a text argument (always the best kind) following the phone conversation we had just had as he was driving to work. Classic.

Our end of summer lunch time looked like sweet potato bites in front of Paw Patrol so I could return a phone call to a dear friend in distress: this was quickly becoming an extra-ordinary Monday.

My washer has been broken for awhile and although I’m completely comfortable with putting laundry on hold as often as possible (or at least the folding bit), we either need to fix it or go buy everyone new underwear. Oh, and two outlets in the kitchen mysteriously went dead and the experienced electrician has no idea what the problem could be. He hasn’t seen “anything like it” in 25 years. Yay.

My youngest son came down with a fever and when I finally got them down for naps I went to work on an editing project. I woke them from naps as pouring rain started dumping from the sky, and at first it felt cleansing and refreshing. I even paused to smile at the rain from my front door.

Then we lost power.

Then my husband texted he needed to work late.

I looked at the clock, then my boys, then my cell phone low battery warning, then the clock. And I sighed.

This Monday started to feel like a symbol for all the internal and external “system failure” error messages popping up in my actual life.

My deep spiritual solution? Treat yo’ self! Donuts for them, iced coffee for me.

I needed to charge my phone using the car charger and it was too early for dinner, and the idea of driving around with them strapped into their respective apparatuses happily singing to their VBS tunes sounded beyond brilliant. We would NOT be getting out anywhere, so our treat options needed a drive-thru. As we pulled up to the Dunkin Donuts window to claim our order, I realized my wallet was not in the diaper bag.

Sigh. Hello, Murphey’s law. Thanks for joining us today.

But the man behind the window said not to worry about it as he handed us our order. “Next time,” he generously smiled.

I exhaled.

We drove around for awhile, jamming to our tunes, then stopped back home to check the power (still out) and I grabbed my wallet. We decided to pop into a nearby restaurant for a mother son dinner. We were a spectacle. (There’s really no other way to say it.) The music piping through the speakers had my sons laughing and dancing in the booth. Oh my soul. And then something made me really look at their faces: they were genuine smiles, filled with authentic joyful silliness, and even as I scolded, “It’s dinner time, not dancing time,” I softened to their wiggly, socially unaware, boyish antics. As we were leaving (with all the grace of a herd of elephants), a kind gentleman willingly and cheerfully held the door for us and encouraged me with kind remarks.

I exhaled.

We arrived home to still-no-power and getting-dark-quick, but the rain had cooled everything down, so we played outside in the twilight until Regis arrived. Then puddle play happened, baths by lantern light, and the evening closed with the men in our house treating me to a delightful shadow puppet show on the wall in our family room.

I exhaled and remembered the verse of the day I had read only 24 hours earlier:

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” –Romans 15:13

Not my power. His power.

Just as I was bumbling around in the dark, ready to tuck two cuties into bed, our house transformed from a dark, maddening maze into wide open spaces.

The light made all the difference.

“This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in him.” –1 John 1:5

How was your Monday?

Is your power going out? Did it go out a long time ago?

Turn your face toward the One who is Light and can scatter your shadows. IN HIM we live, and move, and have our being. He is your wide open space.

Stay with God.

When your power is gone there is better power in the name of Jesus.