Back when my children were small – they’ve all grown now – we lived across the way from my parents. We had four children and several pets. Dan traveled in his work and the children and I would be alone for several days at a time. We got along quite fine except for one thing, and that was the six o’clock news.
See sometimes, even grownups do things that aren’t good for them, and I used to watch the news every night. Sometimes the news can be scary, even for grown-ups. One night, there was a story on about a couple of bad men who escaped from prison and were assumed to be dangerous and in our vicinity.
That night, I tucked the children into bed, read them a story and turned out the lights and went to my room to read and study, which I normally did. As I was reading I heard a noise. I listened. It sounded as if someone might be in our basement. I checked on the kids and they were all in their beds. Then I heard it again.
I was in the house alone and there were two bad guys out there somewhere. I immediately decided they must be in my basement. I told the children to take a flashlight and go hide in my big closet in my bedroom and not come out until I called them, and I called my dad who lived next door. I got a baseball bat and waited by the front door.
My dad came over, and he had his World War Two pistol in his hand and a grim look on his face. He had watched the six o’clock news too.
We waited by the basement door and we listened.
Whomever was down there didn’t seem to be able to make up their minds whether to go upstairs or down. They’d come up a couple stairs and then down a step or two, and then up, and then down. Dad motioned me to stand around the corner. He yanked the basement door open, aimed his gun down the stairs, and started to laugh.
“Dad?” I asked.
“Really big burglar you got there, must be maybe ten pounds sopping wet.”
“What?” I came and looked.
When Miah had taken care of his rabbit that night, he must have left the door unlocked because his bunny was sitting on the steps twitching its nose at us. Dad stepped down, picked it up, and set it back in its cage. He looked around and left. That‘s when I remembered the kids were still hiding in my closet. I ran upstairs, got them out, gave them hugs, and told Miah his rabbit got out.
“I had to hide in the closet due to Fluffy?” he asked.
“I thought she was a burglar.” I replied.
They all thought it was really funny.
And I learned that maybe the six o’clock news was not really a need. God found a funny way to make me realize that watching the news every night was not really good for my health. He leads us all through life if we let Him, and sometimes the lessons He needs us to learn are taught with a smile.