Do Not Be Afraid: A True Story

It’s the middle of the night. A two-year-old girl is asleep in her room. Her mother is sleeping alone in the master bedroom. Her grandmother is sleeping in a detached guest house. Her father is sleeping in another part of the country, but she knows not where.

The young girl wakes up, perhaps from a nightmare. She has been having a lot of those during her brief life. She is frightened, in a half-conscious way, and instinctively proceeds to the comforting presence of her grandmother. To get to her, she must exit the main structure of her home, cross a narrow, outdoor hallway, and knock on the door of the detached guest house. She has done all this before, and her fear has routinely been subsided by the grandmother who has forsaken her own life to, as best she can, play the role of the father who has left to pursue other roles.

In her half-conscious state, however, the girl forgets that Grandma is not home that evening.

She exits the main structure, closing the door behind her. Unbeknownst to her, the door has been mistakenly locked such that one can open it from the inside, but not from the outside. She knocks on the door of the detached guest house. There is no answer. Slowly coming into full consciousness, she realizes that Grandma is not there. Disappointed, she turns to go back into the house, only to find that the door will not open. She realizes, in panic, that she is locked out of her home in the middle of the night. Panic quickly grows into terror as she knocks frantically on the door, wailing, but there is no answer. Her mother’s room is on the other end of the house, and she cannot hear her daughter’s soul-wrenching cries.

The young girl’s terrible screams suddenly stop. A moment later, her mother registers the knocks in her sleep, awakens, and rushes to the door and lets her daughter in. She sees a look on the young girl’s face that she has never seen before. She hugs her and frantically asks, “What happened, Sweetie? What happened?!” The daughter responds. Her two-year-old mind is incapable of producing the right words to describe her experience. Or perhaps it is only a toddler’s mind that could have produced the right words to describe the experience.

“Mommy, I was stuck outside because I wanted Grandma but she was not there because I was so scared and so I started crying and the door was locked and I was really, really scared and I was saying ‘Mommy, Mommy!’ but you didn’t hear so I was so scared and I was crying and crying and crying and then I saw a little girl and she was wearing a white dress and she was standing on top of the gate and I was so scared and crying and she told me to not be scared because my mommy would come soon and open the door so then I wasn’t scared any more and then you came and opened the door.”

Do you know the most repeated commandment in the Bible?

Love your neighbor?

Nope.

Don’t worship idols?

Guess again.

It’s “do not be afraid.”

To my little angel. Daddy will never again leave you or foresake you.

Grace and Peace,
Raffi