my mom gets her own bats
i overheard my 8 year old son engaged in a bragging contest with his friend about their respective parents…or female authority figures. walked by the room to hear “…oh yeh? well MY mom gets her own bats.” and there’s silence. guess he won.
i hafta say i’m getting a lot of mileage out of the night when i went after the second bat that had crept into our old house and got rid of it. after all was said and done, my son was terrified of the flappy thing and would not leave my room–but it evidently left a mark on his brain…and bragging rights.
there was a period when my ex left us high and dry. during this period, i had to fend for myself and my son. that meant i became the resident spider-killer, bug-catcher and bat-getter. my cat was no help. she caught one bat once, but held it in place by standing on the wing till i took over. *sigh*
not that i relish touching these creepy crawlies. if truth be told i still shudder over the size of spiders i’ve had to vanquish. and bats are creepy to wake up to.
rough timeline:
1:20 am–on this night, i was mad. mad that i was effectively a single mom who happened to be accidentally married. mad that i couldn’t count on a husband to catch this blasted bat. mad at my stupid cat who was getting underfoot. mad that i was awake. and mad that that stupid bat had dropped into invisibility behind my son’s bed.
1:35 am–i attacked something with a bat wing, but it happened to be batman’s cape poking out. i then gave up and went to bed.
1:55 am–lights out. *click* flutter. blasted bat. muttering under my breath, i flicked the light on and saw the dumb thing flying countercircles to the ceiling fan.
1:58 am–the cat is leaping. my son is shrieking. i chase the bat into the bathroom with a handy dandy bathrobe and then grab a hand towel and rat tail it out of the air. it falls to the floor, stunned. i had no idea bats had all that hair. i covered it with the towel, picked it up and carried it outside. stupid rodent clung to the towel, no matter how hard i flapped it to loosen it.
1:59 am–i lose my temper and hurl the whole thing against the side of the car. stomp inside intending to go to bed.
2:00 am–feel bad and look for the bat hoping i didn’t hurt it. can’t find it. must be ok. go back to bed.
now–the thing is, i repeated this process several times over the course of weeks. and each time, my son grew bolder in the bat’s presence. not because he ceased to be afraid of them, but because he knew i’d get it eventually. i would protect him, and in the end, we’d win. living boldly in the face of adversity.
the whole thing was a lesson to me on trusting in the grace and character of God to get my bats and knowing that it would be okay. one night, that became crystal clear as i began resenting the fact my husband was sleeping at his girlfriend’s house. i could trust God’s character–that He promised me he would not send the tests to harm me, but to prepare me for hope and a future. trust. it’s all about trust.
truth resonates. when i hear my son bragging about me getting bats, i think about that time one night when suddenly, i realized we were sheltered and nothing in this life could take away that provision.
i know somebody who’s good at getting bats….