The Bunkbed Parable Pt.1

The Bunkbed Parable was an experience I had when my sons were little that started out in frustration but ended up being a valuable life lesson for me. I had gone to buy a set of bunkbeds for the boys and having been assured by a very nice furniture store salesperson that they did indeed deliver and assemble the beds they sell, I purchased a set of those heavy duty metal bunkbeds. I was especially happy about the assembly part because at that time in my life I was not a screwdriver friendly type of person. Imagine my shock on the following weekend when the delivery men set two twin mattresses and a very heavy cardboard box against the bedroom wall, headed back downstairs to hand me a clipboard and said, “We’re done. Sign here”. A short discussion with the deliverymen and a long one with the store manager revealed the fact that they did indeed assemble all of the beds they sold – except bunkbeds. He was as sorry as he could be that I was given the wrong information, but no, the deliverymen were not going to assemble my bunkbeds. All they could do was either leave them there or bring them back to the store where the manager would arrange for a full refund – minus the delivery fee, of course.

After allowing the delivery men to leave I sat down on my living room sofa preparing to have a good old fashioned cry even though I knew it wouldn’t help the situation at all. My head was already pounding because of a 48 hour virus which had decided to stay a few extra hours so crying would only make things worse. I was a single mom and there was no one else to do it but me. I also couldn’t wait to find someone else to do it because the boys were flying back from spring break vacation with their dad the next day and their old beds were already gone. Wiping away the few already escaped tears, I squared my shoulders and went back up the stairs to tackle the job. 

As a person who believes in prayer I took a moment to ask for strength and patience before I started. I then proceeded to open the large flat box leaning against the wall only to have everything tumble out in a heap on the floor because I hadn’t laid it flat before opening. As a result the heavy metal frame was upside down, the two heavy end pieces landed on the toes of one of my bare feet and what seemed like a million little bags of nut, bolts and screws were flung all over the floor. To add insult to injury, the directions for assembly were in the on the bottom of this pile. 

That was it. Even though I had just started, I had already had enough. I followed my first inclination to limp angrily out of the boys’ room slamming the door behind me, crawl back into my own bed and finally have that cry. I threw a real hissy fit even though there was no one but the Lord watching and I knew from experience that a tantrum wouldn’t cut any bait with him. I had a good long cry but after it was over, the bunkbeds were still down the hall waiting to be put together. The boys couldn’t sleep on that mess when they came home so and they were too little to put them together themselves. I was going to have to do it. Brushing the tears out of my eyes and with both my head and my foot pounding I hobbled back down to the boys bedroom to began to sort out the mess in the floor. 

The Bunkbed Parable Part Two