Old Creaky and the Power Outage

Last Thursday a big storm came through our area, leaving behind several inches of heavy, wet snow. The extra weight of the snow created havoc with trees in our neighborhood including one of the huge silver maples in our backyard.

Al and I first heard that there was a problem when the woman living in the house directly behind ours called on Thursday night, asking if our power had gone out. Lynette reported that her furnace was working and the power was on in a few rooms. She was frantically running extension cords to the appliances that weren’t working. Something must have happened, but what?

We were driving home from a meeting when Lynette called. Sure enough, our house and garage were affected, with a few lights on the main floor of the house working as well as those in the basement. The furnace was working too thankfully, keeping the house warm. It seemed strange that both of our houses had partial power.

No one knew the cause of the problem until the next morning when the sun came up. Then it became clear that a branch had fallen off the tree in the back corner of our property and had landed on the wires running from our house to the power pole in an adjacent yard, pulling them down over the fence between our house and neighbor Andrew’s home and blocking his driveway.

His house hadn’t lost power; but he and his wife had to carefully maneuver their cars out of the garage that morning so as not to touch the branch with the dangling wires. Andrew told us that they named that particular tree “Old Creaky” because it had lost branches in the past and would moan and groan whenever the wind was blowing. Thankfully, Old Creaky didn’t topple over or it would have taken out his entire garage, the fence and probably the back of his house.

Even though the problem was reported repeatedly to the power company through texts, phone messages and emails, it was discouraging to find out that nothing could be done for several days. Al finally talked directly to a representative from the company, reporting the downed wires as well as the power loss. That seemed to make a bigger impact than our previous attempts to get help.

After nearly two days of ‘limping along’ as Al termed it, a crew came out on Saturday afternoon and cut away the branch tangled up in the wires, making it possible for Andrew to use his garage again. The workmen were also able to connect the two houses without power to the grid temporarily until the pole crew could come and make repairs at the top of the pole. What a difference!

The pole crew showed up the next day and within an hour had replaced the whole power line from the pole to the house. Al and I kept talking about how we appreciated having an automatic garage door that opened and shut at the touch of a button, a working refrigerator and light in the house once more. Extension cords were put away, candles cleaned up and stored and the big flashlight recharged in the event that this happened again.

Well, Old Creaky’s days may be numbered after this incident! It did make me acutely aware of how much we depend upon electricity and also reminded me of the need for a steady flow of supernatural power from God into our lives. Sin cuts off our relationship with Him much like the fallen branch that damaged the wires at the top of the pole, preventing the flow of electric power.

It takes effort on our part to be reconciled to God, our Heavenly Father. All He asks is that we acknowledge our faults before Him, turn away from them and trust Him to change us by His mighty power. He can do that!

“Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” Isaiah 59:1-2 NIV