Perhaps I shouldn't be too hasty about dismissing God's role in so-called "natural" events as I almost might have seemed to earlier today.

After I wrote about last night's power outage, I went out to inspect for damage. I feel it my duty to report that the power line which feeds me (and, of course, this blog) looked -- and smelled -- pretty gruesome. Considering that there was a downed tree cut apart nearby, it was obvious that it struck the power line, which in turn hit the ground alongside a fifty foot stretch of road, incinerating the earth itself in an eighteen inch wide area on each side of the line. It took a work crew ten hours to fix, and the whole area still reeks of that burnt electrical smell, despite near-constant rain.

Here's the charred area, showing the remnants of the burned line:

And a closeup of a section of melted power line:

Again, while I am most hesitant to buy into such, um, lines of thinking, if I did, I might have to conclude that God hated something. But what? Was it the power line? Might it have been classical values? Or could there have been another target?

I should probably be glad I don't think that way, because it would play hell with my self esteem if I thought God had shut me down.

(Hey, at least no readers were electrified . . .)