Wear your Charlie Brown Halloween shirt today, is what my little voice told me this morning as I woke from not the best night's sleep due to Tropical Storm Zeta. I had been awake a lot during the night listening to the scary sound of the strong, howling wind blowing branches into our house. Luckily, we had no damage or power outage due to Zeta's temper tantrum.
Wear your Charlie Brown Halloween shirt today, was what my little voice said to me a 2nd and 3rd time as I was deciding what to wear for work. I argued back a bit, saying, Wouldn't it be better for me to wait and wear it Saturday since Saturday is actually Halloween? No, wear it today, is what I heard over and over again in my head. So, my intuition, which to me is just another name for the voice of God, won out and I went to my closet and pulled out my beloved, orange Charlie Brown shirt that I wear every year at some point during the Halloween season.
Shouldn't you chunk this shirt? I said to myself as I pulled it on over my head. You've had it now for over 20 years! I know you love it, but it IS starting to look somewhat worn. Maybe this should be the last Halloween you wear it. Yes, let's make this your last day to wear this celebratory clothing item.
I made it in to work at Ellis Piano to find that our business was not as lucky as we were back at home; there was no power in our large store, which meant no phone or internet service either. We would be paralyzed with nothing to do until our electricity returned.
Finally, our lights came on at about 12:20 p.m. Hallelujah! We were thrilled!
At around 1:00, I decided that I needed to make a trip to the ladies' room to take care of nature's calling. No sooner had I seated myself on the throne, so to speak, than the lights went out again!! Now, let me tell you just how dark it is in the ladies' bathroom when there is no power. Pitch-black is the descriptive word here! There are no windows at all and no type of lighting, either, in this particular room.
You can handle this, I said to myself as the panic began to swell in my body. You aren't afraid of the dark. You know this bathroom like the back of your hand. Just stay calm and, for heaven's sake, finish your business.
So, I did . . . finish my business and put my self back together as quickly as possible. As I started trying to make my way out of the stall, panic started to creep over me again as I realized that I was not able to see even my hand in front of my face because of the opaque darkness. Wow! It would be really scary to get stuck in here with no lights on, I thought to myself.
Suddenly, something caused me to look down at my shirt. When I did, I couldn't believe my eyes. The words "Happy Halloween" with a halo of stars above were all glowing clearly in the dark! "Oh my goodness!" I said out loud. "I have had this shirt for over 20 years and never knew that the words glowed in the dark!"
It was then I realized why God nudged me to wear this particular shirt today. He knew that I was going to be briefly trapped in a pitch-dark room later on and would need to see some light. Even though it was just a moderate number of letters and star symbols that were softly glowing, they brought as much comfort to me in that moment if they had been lit up by a spotlight.
"God, are you winking at me right now?" I asked. I'm not sure, but I think he replied, "Yes, and smiling, too!" I also think he wished me a "Happy Halloween!"
I think there is a moral to this story and it is this: God finds us in our darkest places and always finds a way to shed some light on our situations if we trust him with our lives. Isn't this wonderful to know? By the way, I decided NOT to get rid of my old Charlie Brown Halloween shirt. Apparently, God isn't finished with it yet, and neither am I!
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