They That Enter See the Light

And just like that, the lights went out. This was the second time in a month Johnna groped in the dark feeling for the hanging bulb that eluded her every time. Why was it so hard to find it, the barn wasn't that big? She answered her own question. Her grandfather installed the lights himself in 1910 sometime after building a separate room for himself away from the rest of the family. He was peculiar like that and that was the very reason she was here. She recalled her aunts speaking of Pa John's "room", and her curiosity had gotten the best of her. Every since she was a child she wanted to go in Pa's room, but no one was allowed to. Now as a grown up, and the family house vacant, she had no one to tell her the barn was off limits.

She hated to break the lock on the door, but it wouldn't matter; no one lived there anyway and she was sure anything of value was long gone. One of her older male cousins had a reputation for taking things that didn't belong to him, so Pa John's nice things were most certainly already sold. Her head hit the light and it sputtered back on. She made a mental note to bring her electrician friend with her next time if she decided to come back again. She looked around. There was a wire frame bed, a wood chair and night table, and there were books everywhere!

Johnna could not believe her eyes! Three hours later and exhausted from going through stacks of books, she found it. Her great grandfather's little black book that everyone talked about! She held it to her chest. The book was old and worn but it was the closest thing she had to her great grandfather at the moment. She flipped the pages of the book and saw his handwriting, and envisioned him sitting at his table, writing in the little black book. She wished she had been able to meet him but that wasn't to be. But what she did remember was the stories her family told of Pa John hiding money.

She looked through the book but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Pa John made notes of farming fields and crop rotations. He wrote prayers for members of the family and made notes of people he loaned money to. But no mention of any hidden money. She hugged the book to her chest again and squeezed it to channel the memory of her great grandfather. She flipped through the book again and something on the last page caught her eye. [Luke 8:16 No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light.]

She laughed to herself. She heard from her aunt how her great grandfather loved reading the bible and how his long prayers at dinner time sometimes lasted an hour! Could this possibly be a clue? This was the only bible verse in his handwritten notes so maybe it meant something. She looked around the room. No candles anywhere. Her cousin probably took them she said to herself. He left all the books in the barn because the rumor was he couldn't read. Johnna laughed to herself again. Something told her to look under the bed so she got on her knees and lifted the old quilt. Dust swirled around her head and she sneezed so hard she fell on her bottom hitting the floor hard. When she did, a key that was attached to a string fell from a metal slat. The odd thing was the key was encased in a lump of wax.

There was no way no one had found this key before! No one was curious enough to ramble through Pa John's barn? And what was the key for? She read the hand written passage again. [Luke 8:16 No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light.] This wasn't making any sense. But this key with melted wax around it WAS under the bed! She wondered what else was under the bed?

She tried to move the bed but it was bolted to the floor. How am I going to move the bed to see if Pa John left anything there she asked herself? She didn't have any tools. She looked at the key again and looked at the bolt. She looked at the key a second time, and her eyes went back to the bolt before she screamed. The head of the key fit the bolts of the screw! She got so nervous she sat on her bottom again, this time to take in what was going on!

With the last screw done, she pushed the heavy bed to the side. She couldn't hear herself think because her heartbeat drowned out any thoughts she had. [That they which enter in may see the light.] Enter where? See what light? She looked at the floor again and then she saw it. On one of the boards, someone had carved an object in the shape of a lightbulb. Johnna's body went numb and if anyone had been looking at her they would have thought she had seen a ghost. Inside the shape of the lightbulb was a lock in the shape of the key she held in her hand!

Under the floorboard, Johnna found cash! Tons of cash in glass jars! Each of the jars had a wax circle imprinted with the head of the key! By the time she finished counting, Johnna was at $20,000! A windfall left by her great grandfather to anyone who was curious and courageous enough to enter his special room.