We had a huge line of thunderstorms ram through our area last night. I saw the dark clouds as I pulled in my driveway returning from an appointment. I hurried to bring in my empty trash cans, collected the (junk) mail, and secured things on the patio.

Just. In. Time.

When the skies opened up with frontline winds, it was as though the sky unzipped. In a matter of moments, visibility was greatly reduced and the rain was blowing sideways! The power flickered off and on as I was making my dinner. I heard what sounded like a transformer blow in the neighborhood. Lightning was fierce and frequent (about 3 “Mississippi’s” away.)

Once I finished my meal, I reached to turn off the lights and BAM. Silence. Darkness. No power.

My first thought was, “did I blow a circuit?” And then I heard the power source for my router begin to beep… Ahhhh. No. Power is off from the storm.

I found a flashlight in case the outage would last for a while and settled in with a book. I laughed at myself for the coincidence of the power outage and my flipping a light switch.

So many times, we equate “God at work” when it is more often as Professor McGonagall of Harry Potter fame would have said “Sheer dumb luck!” My timing on a photo of a pileated woodpecker. The perfect silhouette of a leaf with a “heart” in it. Milkweed “exploding” its seeds. Scoring a close-in parking space when it’s raining. Avoiding an accident on the Beltway. (I’m sure you can compile your own list…)

Sometimes what we misinterpret as God’s favor is actually circumstances. It’s true for our personal lives and politics.

Let the reader understand…