It was a beautiful spring day when everything came together just right at the Needmore Baptist Church to create the perfect storm. The Jackson  girls had made their first visit to Tennessee to visit their mother the widow Jackson. 
The widow Jackson had not lived in Tennessee  very long having moved to Needmore to be closer to her cousin who lived there. Some people said they thought that perhaps she also wanted to be a little closer to uncle Seth Ledbetter, who had also lost his wife some months before. 
In any event  they all showed up on this warm sunny spring morning. Now the oldest Jackson sister was somewhat of a celebrity in New York city, where she worked as a reporter for a local television station.
It also happened that Dooley and Billy Clyde had been looking for a four-leaf clover on that Sunday morning before church time.
Dooley had  found a small harmless garden snake, probably a foot long and very  small, in circumference right beside a four leaf clover.  He had crammed  the snake down deep in his front pocket, said it was a lucky snake. 
So he came to church with a tiny snake in his front pocket. Just as the final prayer was finished  Aunt Sadie Crabtree whispered to Edwin Garrett  that she had lost her hearing aid somewhere in church. Edwin, being the gentleman that he was, started searching the pew where Aunt Sadie always sat, looking for the hearing aid.
Cousin Roy Lee Seber thought it might have dropped on the floor, so he got down on his hands and knees and started crawling around under the pews. Dooley didn't know what they  were  looking for, but decided he would crawl around and look also.  
Billy  Clyde had no idea what was going on, but spoke out loud enough for  everyone to hear and asked Dooley if the snake had got loose. 
Well the Jackson sisters had seen a report on television about the snake handlers in Tennessee. When she heard the words “snake loose,” she began shrieking at the top of her lungs. “One of their snakes has escaped.” 
Her sister quickly joined in the screaming along with the widow  Jackson. 
Thinking that a snake had somehow got in the church house, most of the other church women joined in the shouting and screaming. Pete Peterman couldn’t hear it thunder on a quiet night, and thought they were saying the house was on fire. 
He quickly dashed back in the back and grabbed the fire extinguisher and came running back into the sanctuary yelling for someone to call the fire department. The church clerk scrambled back to the hallway where the church phone was located.  
In less than five minutes, the Needmore volunteer fire department was on the scene with sirens screaming and lights flashing. Half of the firefighters were  there at church but they dashed out to help their brothers fight a fire. The firefighters ran inside and started to evacuate the members.
In the mix up, not knowing for sure who was on duty and who was already at church, some of the firefighters evacuated some of their own unit.
The pastor, Brother Jones, thought revival had broken loose so he started shouting “Praise the Lord” at the top of his voice.  In the very center of the storm, Roy Lee and Dooley continued to crawl around on the floor searching for the hearing aid, or whatever was lost. 
As it turned out, Edwin was the only person in the house who knew what it was they were  searching for. After things quieted down a little Aunt Sadie announced that she had found her hearing aid.
It was in her ear and she never thought to look there.
The Jackson girls headed back to New York that very afternoon. They said they had never seen anything like that in their whole life. Needmore folks still talk about the lost hearing aid even to this day.
God must have a sense of humor to create man like he is. Do you think  God ever looks down on us in our confusion and smiles?