Lightning Strikes

There is a reason why Tampa's hockey team is called the Lightning. It's because this area is known as the lightning capital of the world. Well, the lightning found us yesterday afternoon. Anne was getting ready to go to dinner with the Grace Family pastor's wives, and I was on the computer in the family room, when a big storm started. These are common in Florida, especially in the summer, so I didn't think much of it. Then I heard an odd sound. It sounded kind of like a big piece of equipment was powering down, and our lights flickered, but came back on. Then, five seconds later, it happened again and everything went off. At first, I figured it was just a normal power outage, but then I noticed that our air conditioner was still on, while everything else was off. I decided to walk out to the garage and see what the electrical panel looked like. when I walked out, I could see that the panel door was blown open, with black soot on the inside. As I got closer, I could see that there were still sparks flaring up inside the panel. I must admit my first thought was, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME!??! The week that we are closing on the sale of our house, and my electrical panel is blown up?" Since I was watching it, and the sparks were dying down, I decided that I didn't need to call the fire department. But, I called an electrician. (This is where the silver lining comes in...) A co-worker had told me that he had some electrical work done on his house by this company, and their name stuck in my mind. So I called Small Jobs Electric and Nathaniel was here within 30 MINUTES!! He told me that I would have to replace the panel. I agreed, and he called his partner and they got to work. Five hours later, the electricity was back on, and we tested all the other appliances and electronics in the house and there was NO FURTHER DAMAGE! As I was going to bed last night, I was thankful that we were able to get the situation resolved so quickly. But, it was even more significant than I thought. At 9am this morning, there was a knock on the door. It was the APPRAISER! Can you imagine if we were still without power with a burned out electrical panel?! Anyway, he was able to see our house without any issues, and was off to write his report. I'm not sure what God is trying to teach me through yesterday's events, but I know that He was protecting us, and causing All things to work for our good. (Romans 8:28)