One Loose End Tied Up (at least for now)

The past 36 hours have been quite a ride for me and Jack and his pet lizard.

Late Saturday afternoon after Jack's friend had to go home, we went out to run some errands and go out to dinner. When it came time for bed, I went into Jack's room to feed his fish and turn out the lights on lizard's tank. Hello! No lizard.

"Jack, did you and Brett have the lizard out this afternoon?"
"Yeah."
"Did you put him back in before we went to run errands?"
"Uh, I don't think so."

I was about as tired as I've ever been and trying really hard not to be angry. I asked Jack to put on his pajamas and brush his teeth and then help me find the lizard. After a minute or two I realized he wasn't doing as I asked (which, by the way, has been our ongoing issue lately). He told me he just had one thing to do. I warned him that I was already angry and didn't want to get angrier.

Turns out the one thing he risked my wrath to do was to say a prayer, asking God for help in finding his lizard.

I immediately start praying in my mind, "If there's ever a time for a boy to learn that God wants us to turn to him in times of trouble, this is it. And p.s.: I really, really need a good night's sleep and I will definitely sleep better if I'm not worried a lizard will crawl across my face in the middle of the night."

Within five minutes we found the lizard. Coincidence? Maybe.

Fast forward to the next morning. Jack gets the lizard out of the tank and takes it downstairs to watch some tv. I go down a few minutes later to make him some breakfast.

"Um, Jack. Do you know where the lizard is?"
"I don't know."
"Then turn off the tv and start looking."

I look over at Jack and he is on his knees saying a prayer. Again, I immediately start praying in my mind, "If there's ever a time a boy needs to know that prayer is not a magical solution to fix the consequences of being irresponsible, this is it. Please help me to handle this situation wisely."

We looked for five or ten minutes without turning up the lizard. Jack started getting really worried. We talked about his responsibility for taking care of the lizard, how he'd made a mistake by not keeping an eye on him, and that there was a good possibility we might never find him.

I suggested that Jack think about how he made a mistake and what the consequences were. And then he might want to pray again, this time expressing that he was sorry he'd forgotten his responsibility. He went to his room for a while. I could hear him crying and wrestling with the whole situation. It was all I could do to let him work it out for himself.

We went to bed last night with no sign of the lizard. It was Jack's turn to say a prayer. He asked for forgiveness for making a mistake and then immediately asked that the lizard would be safe whether we ever found him or not. I was really proud of him for clearly realizing that his actions put his lizard in danger and that he was more concerned about the lizard than he was about his own feelings.

I held a prayer in my heart as I fell asleep last night and when I woke up this morning. "If there's ever a time for a boy to learn about the power of repentance and forgiveness, this is it. And p.s.: I'll feel a whole lot more comfortable knowing where that lizard is."

A few hours later I was emptying the dishwasher and saw the lizard crossing the kitchen floor out of the corner of my eye. I called for Jack and he got the lizard safely back into the tank, where he will stay untouched by human hands for at least a week!

Coincidence? Maybe. Or maybe not.