Well, that was an interesting way to end the evening.

After choir, people were chatting up in the loft. Suddenly, the lights went out. No one panicked. Some of us yelled downstairs for those near the light switches to "turn on the lights, again". Nothing. We called down again. They called back, "No one's standing near the light switches!" It was at this point that we realized...how dark it was.

"The lights are out at school!" (next door) The power was out.

Then we had to find cell phones and flashlights (but mostly phones) so that we could see the narrow stairs as we left. It's the kind of darkness where I couldn't see my friend K, only two feet away. If I waved my hand in front of my face, I couldn't see it either. A fellow chorister who has difficulty walking inched her way down the stair by the cell phone light. We all made it without anybody falling. Our pastor's wife ran home next door and grabbed a flashlight so by the time we made it down the front steps (dark there, too - the outside lights weren't working either) we had that light too. The only other light was the traffic on the highway, and the light of the stars.

The building where I attend church sits out in the country, along a major highway. The night sky usually cannot be much appreciated. It was not so tonight. The stars shone brighter, and nearer.

"Praise the One who breaks the darkness, with a liberating light;
Praise the One who frees the pris'ners, turning blindness into sight.
Praise the One who preached the Gospel, hearing ev'ry dread disease,
Calming storms, and feeding thousands with the very Bread of peace."

"Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness", LSB #849, verse 1.