Rats!

It was the munching noise that woke me.  Whatever was snacking in my ceiling was directly above my bed.  Rubbing my eyes, I sat up and tilted my head toward the ceiling.  Silence.  Had I dreamt it?  I listened again and suddenly the sounds of munching and scurrying filled the room.  I groaned and threw myself back on my pillow. 

It was exactly the right time of year.  The rain had started in earnest and evening temperatures were dipping into the 40’s.  Precisely the time when rodents feel they should move indoors to prepare for winter. The chewing stopped and started again.  In the silence, the noise was incredibly loud.  Unclear what to do, I pulled up the covers and lay in the dark listening.  I really wanted Mr. Rat to leave, but I would be satisfied if he went to sleep.   My clock read 2:15.  What exactly are you supposed to do in the middle of the night when a rat is in the attic?

When I awoke the second time, the clock read 2:27.  Mr. Rat had invited a friend over for hors d’oeuvres.  I was getting mad. The covers around my head were uncomfortably hot, so I sat up and took off my cardigan.  I needed to do something.  I took a drink of water and sat in the dark listening to the sounds of vermin date night.   I wasn’t thinking too clearly at this point.  My head felt full of stuffing as I padded around to my husband’s side of the room and started to root around for his back scratcher.  I knocked over a glass of water and a couple of books before I found it.  My husband stirred slightly.  I smiled to myself.  We had come a long way since the early days in our marriage.  Back then, the least sound would have him running for the front door with a bat before he was even conscious.  I grabbed my weapon and headed across the bed.

I was waving the scratch stick at the ceiling, when I realized I was behaving like an idiot.  I decided if I stood on the bed and rapped the ceiling a few times, there was a small chance the rat couple might change location to the other side of the attic.  I stood up on the bed.  Except it didn’t happen that easily.  Standing up straight on a soft mattress isn’t easy at the best of times.  Standing up straight on a soft mattress when you are half asleep in the pitch black is like engaging in seniors balancing class.  I stood wobbling in the dark.  It was then I started to feel weird about my circumstances.  Reaching down to see if my sweater was nearby, I overbalanced and landed face first at the bottom of the bed.  My husband sighed and rolled over.  I sat still, face smashed in the covers, until his breathing slowed.  I stood up again.  Raising my left hand to the ceiling, I gained some stability. (I remember being pleased I could reach the ceiling whilst standing on my bed.  I’m short and I don’t spend much time near ceilings.)  I kept one hand on the ceiling and struck it twice with the end of the backscratcher.  The rats stopped munching.  Success!  The ceiling was more solid than I expected, making me think I could hit it a bit harder without waking my man.  I repeated the process, adding a bounce to each strike.  Suddenly, out of the darkness my husband asked, “Karen?  What exactly are you doing?” Startled, I jumped (again), landed criss-cross apple sauce on the bed beside him and thanked the good Lord for high quality drapes.

I had two options.  I could attempt to explain why I was ill clad, jumping up and down on the bed, smacking the ceiling with a backscratcher at 2:30 in the morning or I could say “Nothing, go back to sleep.”  Choosing the latter seemed the fastest way to get out of an embarrassing situation.  He must have been really tired because he mumbled “with pleasure” under his breath, rolled over and was out again.

When I woke up the next morning, I trotted to the kitchen to make myself tea and grabbed my phone to call the exterminator. Reflecting on my behavior, I’m still uncertain what I should have done.  It would have made more sense I guess, to go into another room to sleep and waited until daylight to deal with the intruders.  But sometimes, darkness makes us do strange things.  I’d never been awoken in the middle of the night by munching rats, it was a bit surreal.  I was doing what seemed right at the time.

This week as I have been walking alongside a handful of friends that are struggling, I have thought about how we behave in the dark.  More specifically, I have thought about some of the ways I behaved in the depth of my family’s crisis those years ago.  A casual observer would have had ample cause to wonder about my behavior, my susceptibility and intentions.    But those whom God sent to help me were able to see past my situation.  They could hear the fears that haunted me, could cover my vulnerability and could come along side in ways that brought me through the long dark night.   I will be forever thankful.

And you my friend, do you have anyone in your life who has hit upon a dark season?  Continue to ask God for the grace to love, the courage to stand, and the weapons to fight until the light comes on again.

I’m praying for you this week,

xoxKaren