A Dragon Slayer For An Uncle And Sliding Door Monster Barriers

As a child, I lived for those times when I was out of school and could spend time at my grandparents’ house. It never mattered whether it was summer or Christmas vacation I was always ready to go spend as much time as possible there, at least until the lights went out. You see my paternal grandparents lived in what at least seemed to me at the time to be a rather large house, and for whatever reason the old house always became a little scary to me at night, at least until I was older.

Perhaps it was the size of the house or maybe the fact that one day as my aunt and I were exploring the attic she warned me that were I to fall, I would be trapped between the walls and never be heard from again. Fortunately for me that never happened. Even now, I remember never wanting to go into one of the bedrooms because I heard my great grandfather passed away in that particular bedroom.

Another reason could have been the fact that a radiator type of heating system heated the house. For those unaware of how that works, in the chicken house closest to the house there was a big coal fired boiler. In the wintertime, the hopper of that big furnace was filled with coal and burnt to heat the chicken house. When building the house my grandfather ran water pipes from the chicken house to radiators throughout the house for heat as well. Anyone who has ever been in a house with this type of heat knows those pipes that were filled with water could make all kinds of very spooky noises.

Nevertheless, it always seemed like as the sun went down, the old house came alive and every sound I heard was something I should fear. Fortunately, for me, most of those fears vanished simply by pulling the covers over my head. That is until that one fateful night when I heard something outside the bedroom window that totally changed everything. In one moment, every fear I had ever felt came alive, as suddenly I stared the beast right in the face.

On this particular night, I found myself awakened suddenly from my safe place in the middle of that big bed. Once my eyes opened, I realized that what had stirred me was right outside my window. In spite of my best efforts to ignore it and lay there in the safety of the bed, my curiosity or fear, not sure which one compelled me to get out of the bed for further investigation.

Moving very sheepishly across the room towards the window, I looked back at the door, planning my escape route if needed. For a brief moment I considered waking my grandfather, but quickly decided that I would determine what it was and if need be I was sure that I was fast enough to run very quickly down the hall to his bedroom.

With each step towards the window, I considered other options, but for some reason unbeknownst to me, I felt this overwhelming compulsion to seek out exactly what it was. The floor that never seemed cold before, felt as if I was stepping on ice, and even though it was summertime in a house with no air-conditioning. I found myself shivering instead of the normal sweating I was used to. Suddenly I felt the wind blow through those opened windows and as I looked down on the driveway, there it was!

Just like in a horror movie, it felt as if it took forever to reach the window and then in one split second I was witnessing the scariest thing I had ever seen. Right below my window in the middle of the driveway was the ghastliest creature ever encountered by any human. With multiple heads that looked like many serpents it moved and seemed to be inching closer and closer to the house. There was little doubt in my mind that I was going to be surely killed, by this monster from some depths unknown.

Once I managed to come out of my frozen state that I was sure the creature had put me in, I then managed to lower one of the big wooden sash windows figuring the closed window would offer some much-needed protection, and then just as I reached for the second one, I heard a noise from within the house. Surely, it was not another one of these creatures inside the house ready to devour all of us. No, I suddenly realized it was someone coming up the stairs from the basement. In a move that would have made Gale Sayers proud, I ran towards my door and into the hallway to see my Uncle Edwin coming up the stairs.

Quickly I told him, over my rapid breathing, of my plight and of the beast that lurked right outside of my window. Without hesitation, and as any good uncle would do, he sprang into action and went towards the windows. Then in miraculous fashion, he quickly slew the dragon that had terrorized me with only a few words. He looked outside and then looked at me and informed me that my dragon was only a tree limb that the wind had blown into the driveway below. With that, the beast that had swayed and hissed at me earlier was now gone, and in its place lay a lonely tree branch to never bother me again. Amazing how quickly adults can slay those dragons and ease our fears.

On another occasion, lying in my own bed at home, I found myself under attack from the most hideous of men I had ever seen. This man had to be in excess of seven feet tall, and wielded an assassin’s axe that seemed to be as large as he was. With his body covered in armor, he emerged from my closet one dark night and as sure as I am sitting here right now, I was sure he was going to take my life from me. In what seemed like an eternity, I remember thrashing about on the bed, dodging that enormous blade of sharpened steel. With one last gasp of desperation, I remember screaming out and suddenly the man who has protected me my entire life sprang into action.

With only a flip of the light switch my dad chased the would be assassin back into the closet, and with one swift movement that would have even amazed the great Zorro, he slid the sliding closet doors shut and forever locked away the evil that had tried to escape from it. Once again, my life had been saved, by some rather quick thinking from the adults in my life.

Age has a way of changing things for us all. The monsters of our childhood, that were so quickly slayed by our parents and others, eventually give way to real dangers that we somehow found ourselves in. The tears of a child soon fade and eventually are only a memory; in their place are tears from a broken heart, as that first love quickly turns their back on us. Fear of things that go bump in the night now replaced by fears of failure. For many of us those same adults who once rushed to our rooms with the speed of a superhero, to save us from certain disaster, we watch lay in beds gasping for their last breath as that real monster that is death takes them from us.

As a young father, I remember many nights looking under beds and closing closet doors to make sure there were no monsters present. How I wish that it were as easy today to solve the problems in the lives of my children. The smile and comfort that my own father once brought to my face with only the sliding of a door, now only comes from time spent in prayer. How thankful I am for the times my own dad knelt beside my bed and prayed that God would give me rest. Those are the actions that showed me how to get through troubled times.

On our knees, we can conquer any fear. There is no monster in our lives, which God cannot slide the doors of Heaven open and destroy. Just as parents can ease the fears of a little child who see monsters outside or coming out of the closet, our Heavenly Father sent His Son to conquer death, Hell, and the grave, so we would never have to live in fear again. Now if I can just figure out how Uncle Edwin turned that dragon into a twig I will have found all the answers.