Power outage. Driving in the rain; not just any rain, huge droplets falling on my windshield type of rain. It’s June, the heat mixed with the water created a bit of mugginess. In some parts of the country, that is completely normal, but here not so much.

Dark streetlights caused traffic to back up. I noticed trash flowing down a small trench running alongside the road. Where did all of this come from? Lightning flashed across the yellow tinged sky followed by the angry roar of thunder.

I am familiar with June gloom, but this was something altogether different.

Feeling a bit uneasy, I called my friend who happened to be driving in front of me. “Hey girl, you see that trash riding the tiny river in the ditch next to us. You see how high the water is rising by the fire department? And doesn’t it just feel weird right now?” She concurred with every statement. We could hear the uneasiness in each other’s voices. I suggested we pray before we hung up.

We asked for protection and peace as we sat in our vehicles at a complete standstill. Our simultaneous “Amens” were punctuated by the most perfect billboard. “Prayer changes things”.

In this case, it changed us. The rain still fell, the thunder and lightning made themselves known, and the sky remained a mixture of yellow gray, but we felt calm.

“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” -Jeremiah 33:3