A few years ago Micah called from Germany to beg us to put money in his account ASAP so he could hop on a bus to Berlin to catch his flight home because he had used up his very last coins on this call. Click. I prayed for a Good Samaritan to show up to help him, and by golly one did. The bus driver heard his story and let him ride the nearly empty bus at midnight for free. Last spring I was grappling with how to help him find work and replenish his self esteem and prayed for him to be lifted out of the ditch he was in. Bingo, a friend invited him to be a zip line guide in Alaska. He was on a plane in two days and spent the summer building up his upper body strength helping tourists whizz through the trees and over pristine lakes. He had a fabulous time exploring the woods, growing his red beard and catching wild salmon, and was awarded Best Lead for the summer. Then he flew to Los Angeles to find work in the film industry, and stayed with his older brother. Patterns from their childhood reemerged from hibernation and we fielded a number of frustrated phone calls. I prayed for something to jiggle them out of the impasse. Zing, we get a call at 9 one night saying Micah will be on the Conan O'Brien Show in an hour. It was a frivolous interchange with him "naming that song" but it seemed to diffuse the tension and the brothers reconciled.

When I stand next to the baggage of marriage and parenting, I feel no more capable than a mouse. But against the odds of gravity, an invisible hand shows up when I least deserve it.