Do you remember playing with a jack-in-the-box? When I was a child it was the go to gift to give to toddlers. You would get the young child to turn the handle on the box and music would play “All Around the Mulberry Bush” and then when they least expected it, the box would burst open and a clown or jester would pop out. Then the child would either squeal with delight or cry hysterically.

This morning I was thinking about how our life is a little bit like the jack-in- the-box. You and I are pretty good at keeping our inner lives hidden. We know how to put on a great face in almost every situation. But, there are situations that affect us much like the turning of the crank on the jack-in-the-box. And, often to our great surprise, when we least expect it, out jumps an attitude that seems foreign to us, at least outwardly. Where did that come from? That’s not me. I am not that way. That was an apparition.