THE
BOMB UNDER THE BED

Topics: Anger; Bitterness; Confession; Hindrances; Repentance; Shame

References: Psalm 90:8; Matthew 5:21–22; Ephesians 4:26

During World War II, Zinaida Bragantsova of Ukraine was sitting by the window sewing. Suddenly she heard a whistling noise. Then she was struck by a blast of wind. When she came to, her sewing machine was gone, and there was a hole in the floor.

She told people there was a bomb in the floor, but she couldn’t get any officials to check out the situation. So she moved her bed over the hole and lived with it for the next forty-three years.

Then, one day, phone cable was being laid in the area and demolition experts were called in to probe for buried explosives. “Where’s your bomb, Grandma?” asked the smiling army lieutenant of Bragantsova. “No doubt, under your bed?”

“Under my bed,” Bragantsova responded dryly.

Sure enough, they found a five-hundred-pound bomb. After evacuating two thousand people from surrounding buildings, the bomb squad detonated the bomb. Bragantsova moved to a new apartment.

Many people live as if they have a bomb under their bed. They cover up a terrible secret, a great hurt, a seething anger while everyone goes on about their business. But no one is truly safe until the bomb is uncovered and removed.

—Lee Eclov, “Danger of Bitterness,” PreachingToday.com