One night last week, I was sitting in the living room with the baby, while Ben played in his room. About 10 minutes before, I heard him ask Nick to turn on his Fisher Price piano game that hooks up to his tv. I could hear him laughing and repeating various shapes and numbers back to the television. Then all of sudden I heard a loud crash. I raced down the hall to Benjamin's room. Nick, ran from the other end of the hall, and we met at the doorway. We stopped and stared for a second, not saying anything. There was a pile of glass in the middle of the floor.
The glass globe over his bedroom light had fallen off and broken into a million pieces. Benjamin, sitting on his rocking horse in the corner, was just barely out of harms way.
"Are you okay?" I asked Ben. "I okay Mommy", he said; his eyes as big as saucers.
I handed the baby to Nick and carefully stepped over the shards of glass to pick Benjamin up. Nick watched the kids in the next room while I cleaned up the mess. After a little bit, I looked up to see Nick checking on my progress. Neither of us had said much- I think we were in shock. I finally said, "Nick, it was the Lord that this didn't hit Benjamin. He was playing his game all this time, and it was right above where was standing." "I know." He said. "He never sits on that rocking horse."
I hadn't even thought of that. Nick was right, Benjamin never played with the thing. Something had prompted him to stop playing his game, and go sit in the only place in his room where he would be safe.
I started thanking God over and over that Ben hadn't been hurt... or killed. Tears formed in eyes while I cleaned, just imagining what could have happened. "Why did the globe fall?" I wondered. I took it down to clean it about a month before that... I must not have screwed it in good enough. I needed to check every other light in the house! Why did it take an entire month to fall down? Why in the world did it shatter so badly? It fell onto a thick shag rug, on top of thick carpet. My mind continued to race as I began freaking out about this "near miss" and the safety of my children.
Thankfully, the Lord quickened my mind and helped me snap out of the downward spiral I had started mentally. I reminded myself that I am only human. No matter how hard I try to be a perfect parent and protect my kids from everything dangerous, I will make mistakes. We need the grace of God just to make it through each day. Some days it is much more obvious to us than others- like when our child almost gets hit in the head, or we nearly get into a car accident. But, truth is, even the days we don't realize it, God's grace is the only thing getting us through. He gives us breath. We MUST depend on Him for our safety... for our life.
Otherwise we could go nuts (some people do) trying to do it on our own. Putting our trust in God to take of us and our families is the only way to really have peace. Worrying about it all the time and dwelling on what "could happen", slowly steals away at your faith and will likely send you into a frenzy! While thinking through these things, my tense expression gradually broke into a little smile of relief. I thanked God again.
I thanked Him for His hand of protection. Then, I thanked Him for the resulting testimony- that would one day be Benjamin's to tell.