We used to spend a lot of time at my maternal grandmothers house. While my other Grandmother had 12 children and something like 43 grandchildren, this Grandma only had three children and my brother and sister and I were all she could claim at the time for grandchildren. It is my thought that because of her limited offspring, we defaulted into being very cherished by her and my grandfather as well. We felt so important to them.

We were never “entertained” by our Grandparents in those days like children are in this day and age. It was just how life was in that time and place for everyone we knew, so to us, it was normal. We were accepted and were simply folded into the fabric of their everyday life each time we went to visit. Grandpa would go to work each day while Grandma took care of the household chores and my Mother would take us to visit once a week while she did her laundry in their basement. Sometimes she would let us stay a couple of days for a sleepover. Oh how much we loved to do that! It was like slipping into someone else’s reality and it was an adventure!

My Mother had a brother who was 13 years younger than her which made him closer in age to all three of her children than he was to her! Hence, he was like our bonus brother, and he enjoyed spending time with us and sometimes had fun playing tricks on us. One tall tale he used to tell us was that the Boogey Man lived in the basement. When we pressed him for where the boogey man was, he pointed to a door at the far end of the potato bin. This bin was in a small alcove area that was probably 4 feet wide by 4 feet deep and 4 feet across the back again. It was partitioned off with a three foot high by 4 foot wide board that was placed in front of the bin to hold potatoes back in an area where it was cool and dark. We could clearly see the door in the back as we stood outside the potato gate. What we did not know was that the door led to nowhere. It was simply propped up against the back wall to keep the potatoes away from the damp basement wall.

One day, my sister and I were exploring the unfinished basement in the dim light of a single bulb hanging at the end of an electric cord in the middle of the room. This dim light created all sorts of creepy shadows, so we were always careful to go down there together, never alone. Grandma had a cellar room down there too where she would store all the canned foods she had harvested from her gardens and fruit trees and even meat was canned in jars for preservation. There they all sat, nestled together in straight rows of each item canned, her meat, her fruits, vegetables, and pickles, To two young sisters, in the dim light, these jars looked uninviting. We were not tempted to open even one!

Once we finished our investigation of the cellar room, we decided to go check out the potato bin again with the dreaded door at the back of it. Did the boogey man really live there? What did he look like anyway? Just being near that door felt menacing to two little girls. My sister kept squealing about the Boogeyman and that he needed to go away. So, with me being the older of the two, I got up the courage to say, “O.k. Alright! I will go see if he is there.” So, I hopped over the 3 foot barrier, walked across the potatoes and when I reached the back of the pile, I attempted to yank the door open. Instead of opening, it began to fall forward but no harm was done because by the time the door hit the potatoes, we were already at the top of the stairwell screaming the entire way up. Grandma hastily met us at the top door to see what on earth had happened to us. She was not too happy to hear the story of the boogey man, told to us by her young son!

So, now here I sit…well over a half a century later and I am afraid of the Boogeyman once again. When I think of him, my mouth feels like it is full of cotton, it is so dry. I can’t see the boogeyman this time either. He is as invisible now as he was back then when he hid behind an old door. These days he is hidden in plain sight. It is hard to summon courage to go after the boogeyman, because I know how badly he can hurt me and those I love. This boogeyman is very, very bad in so many ways. He is making people sick, and even killing some. He is wrecking our prosperous economy. He is everywhere and anywhere and we just cannot see him. He is all over the world creating destruction and sorrow everywhere he goes.

We need a superhero!! Where oh where is a superhero who can save us?

We actually do have a Super Hero and we can’t see Him either, but we have read about Him in a book that is centuries old. We have been taught and told about His power, His strength, His courage and His intention to never let us die. His book was written over the course of many hundreds of years, leaving us messages of love and hope and encouragement! At one point in our history, God even journeyed all the way here to earth from his great Kingdom! He took on human form and walked among us to better understand us in the first person, to feel first hand, the joys and sorrows of living this life. He knows how it is for us now as we face our demons in life, and he wants to help us through it. We only have to ask. We have to ask for help with a faith that believes that His will is far better for us than anything we could ever even imagine for ourselves. I believe Lord, please help me in my unbelief!

Wherever this virus (boogeyman) takes us, whatever it is able to destroy in its path, one absolute truth to hold onto is that we will never be defeated while having God as our protector and our redeemer. Through His Grace we will never die. Through Grace we have eternal life, and for that I will be eternally grateful!

Prayers are the bullets in this warfare that began in Wuhan China. Prayers will see us through. We may not always understand the answers that come to us from our prayers, but we can trust that the answers are perfect for us in His Will in His mighty Kingdom.

Dear God…I am so afraid of the Boogeyman…the virus. I am afraid of the harm it can do to me or my many loved ones. Help me to find courage, Lord. Help me find peace and please give me the strength and wisdom to help others find peace too. We have not faced anything like this before and we are overwhelmed with thoughts of what may lie ahead. Please calm our hearts, Lord, and please give us once again the blessed assurance that we are saved. Easter is only 6 days away, Lord, as you well know! Easter is a day for us to remember a time long ago, on a hill far away, you conquered death on the cross once and for all and the gift from that sacrifice was eternal life for all of us!

Thank you Lord, thank you for the gift of grace!

Amen

Jjb/4/6/2020