TODAY THE WORDS ARE FLASHLIGHT FACES

 

TODAY THE WORDS are FLASHLIGHT FACES. When I looked over on the furniture chest and spotted the flashlight, a humorous thought came to mind. I had a “flashback” of when we were small and would gather around in a spot on the floor for scary story telling time. We would have blankets, quilts, pillows (I think they were to hide our faces when we got scared) and we would get ready for the tales of treasures protected by creatures, ghost stories where the ghosts were normally loved ones passed on who apparently liked staying around to scare the ones left behind. Then there were those “Step by Step” novel stories that made the hairs on our necks and arms stand up and when the “punch” line came, we screamed and occasionally cried and almost always hid our faces only to come up from the covers to see the storyteller with the flashlight face and more screaming occurred with another dive under the covers. All of you who were exposed to these ghastly story sessions may not admit to having the wits scared out of you; but you were scared too. It seems after the first time, we wouldn’t be as scared when the flashlight face appeared; no matter how many times, we screamed bloody murder. The more we screamed the more it happened; that was probably not a coincidence. The boys especially participated in producing “horror” faces when it was there time to be onstage. I look back to those days and it is humorous now at how scared we felt; how tense we felt, and how little danger we were really exposed. Those were the days of little technology, video games of which some of them are scarier than any ghost story we ever heard or told. That brings me to the message behind the message. Yes, there were fears, live fears and some made up fears in those days but we were confident if we were scared out of our wits, our parents were there to calm us down, let us know we were loved, and sometimes even chastise the boys if they got carried away with scaring us. The deeper thought for today…..Life is scarier today with real scary events without having to make them up. We live in a world where flashlight faces are the faces of hate, crime, insensitivity for the value of another’s life, and parents hurting children and children hurting parents or siblings and for whatever evil reason, strangers hurting strangers. If ever we have needed our parents’ protection, it is in today’s world and The True Parent of us all, God is there in the middle of our little groups, wanting to put His Protective Arms around us and turn all of the scary flashlight faces off and give us the comfort, love and warmth needed to take the fear away. When we huddle in fear, let us remember to acknowledge Our God.