My Lion, Witch and Wardrobe
Some call them triggers. Some call them red flags. Others say "when" points, as in, when God stops you so that you realize nothing is going to be the same. There are points in our lives the we are allowed to "see". We can look back on them in a moment with all freshness as if they happened yesterday. They stick in our minds like old habits. They are part of who we are.
I was about 8 or 9 years old and I was literally hidding the first time I remember this happening to me. Looking back, I remember the feel of the room, the silence, the smells, everything. My world suddenly stopped and then...everything was different.
It was minutes before my dad got home from work as I ran to his bedroom and climbed inside of the closet. The closet extended the entire length of the south side of my parents room. It didn't have any doors on it so I had to dig way in there if I didn't want to be seen. Oh, I was gonna get him good. My heart was pounding with excitement as I imagined jumping out and scaring the living daylights out of him. =)
I could hear the garage door open, the car pull in, the door shut and then footsteps. Awesome! I couldn't wait. The steps were loud as my dad climbed them. I knew that he was within a few feet of me, but I waited. I wanted to observe for just a bit until the perfect timing (when he was directly in front of my, preferrably facing the opposite direction so by gut reaction/self defense I didn't get punched in the face.)
My dad came into the room. But he shut the door. He didn't shut the door that often. He was pacing back and forth on the other side of the bed and I could hear him. He was talking. Was there someone else in the room that I had missed because I was so focussed on the timing? Who was he talking to? I said to myself, "Don't make a move. I'm going to be in serious trouble if I hear something that I'm not supposed to. Don't even breathe." I could barely make out what he was saying but I searched for someone else in the room that I could not see.
But that was just it. He wasn't talking to anyone that I could see. My Dad was praying. He was visibly upset but he was casting his cares upon the Lord. That's when time stopped. Revelation came and I was allowed to "see". Everything that I had learned about God suddenly became real. He was not putting on a show. He didn't even know that I was in the room, yet he was doing exactly what he was teaching me. He was taking time to talk with our wonderful savior, alone.
I never jumped out of the closet to scare him. I felt older at that moment, more mature and jumping out to scare him seemed inappropriate because I was different.
It took me almost 20 years to share that story with my Dad, but that is another story...
I was about 8 or 9 years old and I was literally hidding the first time I remember this happening to me. Looking back, I remember the feel of the room, the silence, the smells, everything. My world suddenly stopped and then...everything was different.
It was minutes before my dad got home from work as I ran to his bedroom and climbed inside of the closet. The closet extended the entire length of the south side of my parents room. It didn't have any doors on it so I had to dig way in there if I didn't want to be seen. Oh, I was gonna get him good. My heart was pounding with excitement as I imagined jumping out and scaring the living daylights out of him. =)
I could hear the garage door open, the car pull in, the door shut and then footsteps. Awesome! I couldn't wait. The steps were loud as my dad climbed them. I knew that he was within a few feet of me, but I waited. I wanted to observe for just a bit until the perfect timing (when he was directly in front of my, preferrably facing the opposite direction so by gut reaction/self defense I didn't get punched in the face.)
My dad came into the room. But he shut the door. He didn't shut the door that often. He was pacing back and forth on the other side of the bed and I could hear him. He was talking. Was there someone else in the room that I had missed because I was so focussed on the timing? Who was he talking to? I said to myself, "Don't make a move. I'm going to be in serious trouble if I hear something that I'm not supposed to. Don't even breathe." I could barely make out what he was saying but I searched for someone else in the room that I could not see.
But that was just it. He wasn't talking to anyone that I could see. My Dad was praying. He was visibly upset but he was casting his cares upon the Lord. That's when time stopped. Revelation came and I was allowed to "see". Everything that I had learned about God suddenly became real. He was not putting on a show. He didn't even know that I was in the room, yet he was doing exactly what he was teaching me. He was taking time to talk with our wonderful savior, alone.
I never jumped out of the closet to scare him. I felt older at that moment, more mature and jumping out to scare him seemed inappropriate because I was different.
It took me almost 20 years to share that story with my Dad, but that is another story...
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