JAMES’ MIDNIGHT EXCURSION

Cindy and I were asleep in our beds when an unexpected caller rang the phone at a few minutes to midnight. Unexpected late night calls always have a way of jolting you awake with a curious concern and a kind of searching for why someone would be calling so late. Your mind races through the limited possibilities. The caller was our neighbor’s daughter. She called because our 13 year old son James was at her house. We were shocked. How could that be true? It was a dark and cool fall evening. The doors were locked, the alarm was on, his two sisters were laying down in the living room under blankets watching TV and James had been properly tucked in bed hours before. How could he possibly be at the neighbor’s house.

I got up to go get him. His sister went outside to look for evidence of his escape. Sure enough there was one of his small chairs under the flower box that was outside his window.

The window had been carefully closed after he left. His bed was made with a strategic lump of pillows in the corner. When I brought him back home I asked what the lump of pillows were doing in the corner of his bed and he enthusiastically said, “It’s James.”

James had carefully thought out and executed his plan for a late night excursion to some of his favorite people’s house, the Wilson’s. He had gotten dressed, made his bed, arranged the pillows to fool us that he was still there. He quietly opened the window. Silently lifted his small blue chair through the window and dropped it below the plant box to make his escape easier. He crawled through the window and then carefully pulled down the glass to make the window appear closed and undisturbed. And then off he went barefoot walking into the dark night, through the neighborhood his friend’s house in the middle of the night.

Needless to say by the time we had him back in bed Cindy and I were still in shock. We had moved into new territory. Our escape artist has gained new savvy and skill and our efforts to keep tabs on him just got a bit more intense. Thank God for the way He watches out for him. Cindy has often said that he must angels watching over him. I know the name of one angel that night. It was our most wonderful neighbor Ashley. She has always been so kind, patient and generous with James. She was an angel watching over him that night. Thank you Ashley.