No Worries

They say a picture says a thousand words and that the camera doesn't lie. I am comforted by this picture and drawn to share it with others tonight. Especially tonight while my grandma is lying in a hospital bed clinging to life some 1,500 miles from me.

It was October of 2007, on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Hannah and I drove down country roads photographing the last of summer's flowers. Here in Kansas, it can be 70 degrees in the morning and turn to 35 by night. The wind was picking up and we were getting tired. We stopped at the Pie Lady Coffee Shop and bought cherry pie to take home and have later with coffee. The cemetery caught our eyes at the same time so I pulled in for one last picture. I stayed in the car while Hannah took pictures because I was chilled to the bone. That's when it hit me! She would be going away to college next year. All the years we had become one, often saying the same things in unison. The jokes we played on each other, the tears, my worries, everything all at once in the car. I begged God for a sign that she would be safe and then out of my mouth came the silent words, "I plead the blood of Jesus." What the heck? Those weren't words I was brought up saying although I always heard people say them.

We drove home cold, tired and quiet, never giving our pictures another thought. The next morning, Hannah screamed and I came running because I thought she had accidentally captured a ghost! The original shows bright red blood, creepy. So, we drove back to the cemetery to double check and nothing. Absolutely nothing, just concrete.

I can't explain it, but I do believe I got my sign. We are all held in love and divine protection, whether you want to believe it or not.