
One summer-night in November after watching the DVD ‘The Secret’ the fence-alarm went off at about 3 a.m. It wasn't raining, there was no wind and I couldn't reset the fence alarm, something was wrong. I waited for the armed response to arrive. When he checked the parameters of the garden, we could see how people had broken a section of our precast wall and entered the garden through the electric fence. They set off the alarm, because one of the fence wires had broken. The burglars were gone. Why did this happen to me?

The following day, my gardener and I miraculously managed to find some secondhand panels to repair our precast wall. After the wall was fixed I had the strong urge to paint “Jesus loves you” on the outside of the wall. This is not something I normally would do, but the urge was very strong, so I listened to it. It made sense to me, because I had heard many stories about how burglars come back and back again, until they get in. If they would return to this wall, they could see that I wasn’t angry, that there is someone who loves them, and at the same time I am claiming Divine protection.




Later that afternoon, when I arrived back home I looked up ‘hare’ in my book. Their message was “Don’t be afraid.” This was an appropriate message after the attempted burglary a few days before. Then I looked up the deer, which had the message “Do things the gentle way.” Then my husband asked me “What is the message of buffalo?” I hadn't thought of looking them up, because they look so different from our buffalo. Their message was … “Rely on the power of prayer!” I nearly fell off of my chair. Prayer had protected me against the buffalo. The buffalo also confirmed the importance of listening to my gut feel to paint on the wall “Jesus loves you.” Normally if robbers are unsuccessful, they return within a few days, to try again and again until they succeed. In our case they came only back after one and a half years, but our personal security was never at risk. They also never entered from that part of the fence again.
This attempted burglary not only changed our mind about getting a house sitter, but more importantly it strengthened our faith in power of prayer. Having this experience is priceless in helping us to feel secure while living in a country like South Africa.
I believe crime is not random. As the movie The Secret said, we attract what happens in our lives. it is important to ask ourselves "What am I supposed to learn from this event?" The more we listen to the small signs, the better we get in preventing big cosmic claps.
Enjoy your festive season. Until next time.