How God graciously watches over His little ones

...Which could also be titled "I almost had a heart attack!"

Last night we had just finished dinner (actually, Talia was still eating). Benjamin had gone out to the yard with Seth--see next post--and I was getting ready to clean off Talia's hands and get her down from her booster seat. Suddenly I heard a loud bang/smack. (?? how do you describe a horrible noise?) I heard Seth yell something and looked out the window to see him practically leap the gate that guards the stairs that lead off the deck. I ran outside, fearing something had fallen on Benjamin. The first sight that met my eyes was Benjamin, round-eyed and solemn, but clearly uninjured.

When I turned around there was a car in our driveway, I mean besides our two. "That car came out of nowhere!" Seth was clearly shaken. He went across the street where a group of guys were gathered in front of a house and talked with them for a minute. One of the men was our across-the-street neighbor; the car was his wife's. A minute later the man came over with his wife. They talked with Seth while I tried to keep the kids out of the way.

Amazingly, there was not much damage to either car--minor scratches and dents to both bumpers. The most visible result of the impact was the fact that our car was sitting about 3 feet forward of where it had been parked and as a result had run into and knocked over our BBQ which was sitting at the end of the driveway.

Later as Seth and I were comparing perspectives on the experience Seth told me that he heard the bang and looked over to see the car rolling forward, directly towards Benjamin who was sitting about 5 feet from the end of the driveway. He thought our brakes had somehow failed and was leaping the gate to stop the car from rolling on Benjamin when it stopped on its own. We were both profoundly grateful for how God had protected Benj.

Our discussion then turned to how weird it was that the rolling car had curved with our driveway. It "should" have gone into our grass and hit the shed or hit the house instead of curving all the way to the bottom of the driveway to collide with our car. Obviously the results would have been a bit more disatrous had our house been rammed by a rolling vehicle! I wondered, outloud, where it would have hit if it had hit the house. Then I realized...it would have come through the kitchen wall, right where I was getting Talia out of her seat! The very thought made my heart stop. God protected both of our babies when they were closer than any of us realized to serious injury, even death.

"In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge."

Proverbs 14:26