Judah’s birthday down on the farm

This afternoon we had my grandson’s fourth birthday party at Tangerini’s Farm. It was so cute to watch these precious little ones take off on a hay ride and paint clay pots to be filled with sunflowers. They gave gifts and ate a chocolate tractor cake with ice cream. I snapped pictures of all the ribbons and curls seated on hay bales next to sweet little men.

But the most intense experience came when they were called to adventure into a maze beneath the barn. With flashlights in hand, they were bid to enter a narrow tunnel made entirely in hay. So tight was the entrance that the adults couldn’t go with them. That is, none but the farmer’s wife, an energetic little lady named Laura. “Come on, kids,” she called. “Follow me!” The trouble is, they didn’t know this wiry woman.

Judah the bold was elated with the challenge and plunged in among the first. Slowly, they all entered in, single file and slow-going. The mothers gathered to wait for them to emerge from the other side of the barn. Minutes ticked by. We realized there was no noise. It was sound-proof because the hay was so densely packed. Conversation stopped. Tension mounted.

Finally they began to trickle out. “I want to do that again,” Judah said triumphantly, and plunged in for another round. A little Irish girl named Evelyn said proudly, “I did it! I just followed the corners.” To the mothers’ dismay, some were in tears. “It was really dark in there!” One lost it when he came upon some mud and water.

Then one of the mothers was on the verge of panic. I could hear it in her voice. Her little boy never came out from the first round, she said with a worried look. Pregnant with number four, her hormones kicked in. I knew that wild horses couldn’t keep her from finding that boy. Enough was enough. She grabbed one of the kids’ flashlights and dove in there, belly and all. She heard his little voice from somewhere in the dark, “Mommy? Where is everyone?” Thankfully, she was quickly able to bring him out, but something about that moment might be relived in nightmares.

That poor little boy just stayed in the middle of the maze somewhere. Was he just so confused in the dark that he didn’t realize he was supposed to keep walking? I wonder if he’ll ever know with what discomfort his poor mother had to fish him out of a hay bale maze.

In the same way, I may never understand the agony of what the Savior went through to rescue me from my sorry state. For now, I guess I should hang onto my flashlight and just keep walking.