I saw a praying mantis on the sidewalk when I went to teach an after school program at Brooks College Prep on the south side. Now usually the insect is found in a tropical or sub-tropic environment, and certainly not in a city where the coolness of fall has settled.
But there was a reason why I saw the insect on the ground. Everybody else walked right past it, but I noticed it and stopped to take a picture. Praying mantises camouflage with the environment so maybe they thought it was a blade of grass or something, I don't know. But what I do know is that as I bent down to get a closer look at it, not only was it in a typical stance as though it was praying, but the arms were stretched out like it was also giving praise.
Call me crazy but I know what I saw. And right before I walked into the school I prayed a prayer of safety over our youth, and the south side and the city of Chicago in general. To see a praying mantis out of its environment on a busy sidewalk full of boisterous teens getting out of school at 111th and Cottage Grove with its arm stretched out in praise lets me know that God is everywhere and He definitely hears our prayers.
It also reminded me that if I don't praise Him, even a creature like the praying mantis will.