October 3, 2021

I have mentioned God several times. This is because I am a Christian, so the element of faith is always somehow connected to what I do. Also, as previously mentioned, I was raised in the American South, so there really was no getting around it.

My mother was raised in the Lutheran Church, and my father was raised a Baptist. I'm sure their respective upbringings had some influences on my sister and me even though we did not attend church or talk about religion and God a lot when I was a child.

I suppose the attendance can be attributed to my parents' work schedules: Dad worked midnights for about 20 years, and Mom was working in healthcare while I was growing up. With our parents working so hard, my sister and I spent a good portion of our time with our grandmothers. Granny, my paternal grandmother, and her daughter made sure my cousins, sister, and I attended church whenever we happened to be there on a weekend. It was this particular Baptist church that had the most profound effect on me and set me on my course I am walking to this day. All of this is to say I know God is real, God is good, and God is merciful. He also answers prayers.

I am a bridesmaid in a wedding that is supposed to take place at the end of the month. I met the bride in college, and we struck up a quick friendship. She had shown me such kindness and helped me through an incredibly stressful and emotional time, that I wanted to repay her, and this seemed like a good start.

This weekend was supposed to be the bachelorette party. The plans had been made for a while, but I have not been comfortable leading up to the party because one member of the bridal party refuses to be vaccinated. The week of the party comes, and I get a text Wednesday morning informing me the lady had been exposed to COVID over the weekend. Although her test and her husband's at-home test came back negative, I was still deeply distressed and torn. Call it what you will: intuition, a premonition, my conscience, or even paranoia, but I had the strongest feeling of what I can only describe as dread surrounding this get together. One morning before I went to sleep for my night shift job, I prayed to God about the situation and asked for His protection.

Friday, the day I'm supposed to travel for the festivities, comes, and I go home to sleep for a few hours and pack my bags. I pull into the driveway to find my dog had broken loose and gotten tangled around a willow tree in some high grass. So, my parents and I resolve the situation by mid morning. I go to bed as soon as I can because it's a long drive. Naturally, I overslept.

It was nearly 8 p.m. before I had everything ready to leave. I had to stop for gas before I got on the interstate. Within minutes of getting back on the road, my phone rings, and I see that it's the bride calling me. She called to tell me she has COVID-19 and to stop me before I got too far up there. I found a place to pull over so we could talk safely. As I listened to her voice, I could tell she was sick. Her tone was wrong, and she was coughing every other word. My heart broke for her because she was so looking forward to the party and because she is fully vaccinated.

It occurred to me later this was the protection I prayed for. This belief, this certainty, was reinforced on Saturday when the bride texted me to tell me the one who refused the COVID vaccine tested positive for coronavirus. If this isn't divine intervention, I don't know what is.