Power Outages

“The heavens declare the glory of God; The firmament shows the creation of his hands.”

~Psalm 19:1

It is no exaggeration when they say power outages are very common in Honduras. One minute you have power, the next, it’s gone. There is a particular sound that is heard as everything turns off and silence takes over. You don’t realize how much noise there is until the fans, the lights, everything else run by electricity stops working. Some outages last for a few minutes, and others last the entire day or night. The ones that last the entire day are the hardest of all. Thankfully, there are not many of those. Most of the time they are inconvenient, especially if you had plans to cook and your range is electric. With us having two toddlers it can get even more tricky as they don’t understand why they cannot watch “Pocoyo” (one of their favorite shows) on any of the laptops. With no cooking able to get done (unless the power goes out after you finish cooking) and no shows to put on for the kids, it seems like it would spell disaster!

Or does it? It turns out these power outages are not always that bad. My favorite time for us to have a power outage is at night. Usually, dinner is cooked so if anyone wants to eat, we can. But the better part of having a power outage is it brings us closer as a family. Our eyes are off any and all screens, Santi and Soli love playing with the flashlight pretending to be monsters or ghosts. Since there is no light either outside or inside, the stars are amazing. We can sit in the back part of the house where there is no roof and star gaze. As I glance up at the beautiful star filled sky, I am taken back to summer camp where I discovered how amazing star gazing is outside of the city. It dawns on me that these power outages are a gift from God.

God is interrupting our plans for us to see what He wants us to see: Our children playing and enjoying themselves without technological devices, my husband having fun with the flashlight as he makes goofy (spooky) faces for the children, and myself rediscovering how much I love the stars because of the connection I feel with God when I look at them. I can’t help but think, is it really so terrible to be without power? Perhaps what we deem as inconveniences are God’s blessings upon us.

I want to share a journal entry I made the first time the power went out in the evening and lasted into the night:

Last night our electricity was out for quite some time. What started out as an inconvenience was actually God’s blessing - a gift. For the first time in a very long time, I got to stare at a starry night. The stars were gorgeous, and I went back to a time when I was a teenager in Christian camp. Every night we would go out, sit and watch the stars. We would sing songs of praise and worship, and I never felt so close to God than when I looked into the night sky filled with stars. I felt so close to Him as I would stare at the beauty of it all. I had forgotten how marvelous God’s works are and how you can find God when you stop to marvel at His creation. I was reminded last night of how much I love the stars. Gazing at them reveals to me how small we are with all our problems, and how immense the universe is. God fashioned all of it! He knows every star, moon, and planet. Only He knows the vastness of the universe.

-Nancy