VOICE IN THE NIGHT.

    It was a very angry scene at the breakfast table that morning.  Mr Dawson accused his daughter, Jenny, of hiding the examination papers.

    Mr Dawson usually supervised exams for the night-students at the College in Westington, and now he had lost the papers entrusted to him.  Jenny cried at her father’s anger and distrust.

    It was too late to request more papers from the city, as they might not arrive in time for the exam. 

    Mrs Dawson and Jenny spent the whole hot morning searching through cupboards and drawers. Jenny even closed the same drawer four times, desperate to find the lost papers.

    How could her father accuse her of hiding the papers? Often they teased each other in fun, but steal or hide important papers?  No!  Jenny always tried to be an honest girl since her life changed.

    ‘Honey, you are different,’ her mother encouraged when she first noticed the change in her daughter.  Jenny remembered her pastor, Mr Rosen, saying that when you belonged to Jesus Christ you were a new person, and her life shone like a light.

    ‘Mum, if Dad cannot do anything for himself, we will.  Let’s pray and ask God to help him find those papers.’

    Mrs Dawson gladly helped Jenny turn out the cupboards that day, even looking in the garbage bin; but this was a new request.  Mrs Dawson looked at her daughter.

    ‘You know Father laughs at prayer, and does not believe in it.  But you are right, dear.  As he will not prayer for himself, we will pray for him.’

    Mother and daughter held hands and simply talked with God, and asked Him to help them find the missing papers , and show their father and husband that God is really there.’

    ‘Come, now, it is time for lunch,’ and the two enjoyed their salad sandwich, apple and orange juice, before Jenny helped Mother fold the clothes from the morning’s washing, before skipping off to her room to read.

    During dinner that night, Mr Dawson again threatened to punish Jenny if she refused to return the papers by the morning. 

    Jenny sadly limped off to bed that night.  As she snuggled beneath the bedclothes, she worried that her father doubted her word.

    But Jenny soon slept.  The clock ticked away at her side.  11 o’clock.  Midnight.  Suddenly Jenny woke, sitting up.  She reached out to flick the switch on her blue-frilled, bedside light.   ‘Who was there?’ No-one was in her room, yet Jenny was sure someone had spoken to her.  

    Quickly she hopped out of bed, slipped into her red dressing-gown, and tip-toed into her mother's bedroom.

    Gently she bent over  her mother, as she slept lightly.  ‘Mother, mother,‘ whispered the girl.  She opened her eyes, startled to find Jenny beside her.

    ‘What is wrong?’

    ‘Mother, something wonderful happened.  I heard a voice, but when I turned on the light, there was no-one in the room.’

    ‘What kind of voice?’

    ‘A silent voice that told me where to look for the papers.’

     ‘How could that be?’

    ‘I don’t know, but I am going to look in father’s cupboard, if you will allow me, and see if I am right.’ Jenny would not dare go without her mother’s permission.  At that moment Mr Dawson stirred.

    ‘What did you say?’, he grunted.

     ‘Jenny thinks she knows where the papers might be,  Can we look in your cupboard?’

    By this time Mr. Dawson leapt out of bed.

    ‘Where?  Quick.  Tell me,‘ he quietly ordered, ‘ I’ve been dreaming about them’.

    ‘In your cupboard under the paper lining, father.’

    He strode across the room, opened the top drawer of his own cabinet, pushed aside the clothes, and lifted the paper lining. There, underneath the paper, were the missing examination folders.

    Mr Dawson remembered.  He flushed, embarrassed, as he remembered placing the papers safely under the lining.  Quite ashamed, he turned to his wife and daughter, and apologised to them.  Courageously Jenny explained how she awoke from sleep as though a voice told her to look under the paper lining in the cupboard.

    Bravely she continued, as she drew her gown tightly around her.  ‘ Daddy, I know it was God’s Spirit telling me where to look.  Mummy and I prayed this morning, and tonight you have the answer.‘

    Mr Dawson kissed his wife and daughter.  He once trusted God, and now his sweet daughter, who had prayed for him, encouraged him to renew his faith in God.

    ‘Perhaps you will thank God’, suggested Mr Dawson.

    Simply Jenny nodded her agreement, saw her father’s hand creep into her mother’s hand, and quietly she thanked God for making her Dad think of Him again, and added a sincere ‘thank you’ for answering prayer.

    As Jenny ran to her room, and cuddled beneath the blankets, she was glad that Mr Rosen, her faithful pastor, recently reminded her to be like a light of witness to the Lord in her own home.