His hands were raised. No face. Just his hands, caught in a moment of pure exuberance and excitement.

The picture came through on my phone with a text:

He’s still answering our prayers!

A long time ago, I was in a room just like that one. I was probably taking the picture, or standing just outside the frame while someone else did.

But I was there.

For years, I stood inside rooms where prayers turned into answers, and I was there to catch the exact second God showed up. It was my job.

Show up.

Tell the story.

Take the pictures.

Let God do the rest.

Today, I got the photo secondhand, hours later, framed by someone else’s hands, the story belonging to someone else.

I pinch-zoomed until the picture broke apart into square pixels. Zoomed back out. Zoomed in again, on his hands this time, as if I could somehow stand in that room if I got close enough.

I ran my thumb along the edge of the screen and let out a breath.

I love that someone else got their yes from Jesus.

I wished I’d been there to see it.

I sat in my kitchen and said a loud thank you over a picture I didn’t take.

I started typing a question — what happened right before this? — then deleted it.

My work used to be capturing these moments and writing the stories that carried them into the world. I knew what happened before the picture. I knew what happened after. I knew the names and the prayers and how long people had waited. I remember one woman who couldn’t speak when her answer came — just stood there with her hand over her mouth while somebody else told the story for her.

I remember because I was the one who told it.

Now I was the one staring at the picture, and God had answered anyway.

Of course He had.

I didn’t need to be in the room for God to answer the prayer. I didn’t need to take the picture, or tell the story. The answer found me anyway, hours later, on a little screen in my kitchen, with two hands raised toward heaven.

I set my phone face-down on the counter.

I was sad. And grateful.

A minute later, I picked it back up and opened the text again.

Two hands raised toward heaven.

God answered another prayer.

Amen.