Have you ever had one of those close-call moments? Your adrenaline surges and your pulse quickens? I had one of those moments last night. No, I didn’t have a near miss at an intersection; I wasn’t even in my car. I was cleaning.
For most of you who know me well enough to know I’m not the best housekeeper – ok, let’s face it, I’m not even a mediocre housekeeper – you might not be surprised. But, it’s not what you think.
Here’s what happened.
I had a case of spring fever yesterday. Maybe it was the fresh snowfall, maybe it was the state of emergency my house was in. At any rate, my wonderful mother-in-law who has a once-per-week date night with my kids, collected them around 5 pm, and I started cleaning immediately. It’s pointless to pick up their toys or vacuum while they are around.
You know when you are in the cleaning mood and one thing leads to another? I started out picking up toys in the living room, then noticed I needed to vacuum, then I thought our living room could use a little rearranging. Nothing drastic, just something different.
I moved my long end table away from the wall in order to vacuum under it and change its location. As I moved it out of the way, I gasped as my eye caught the blackened outlet the end table was hiding. The outlet had been supplying power to our space heater all winter long. I removed the plug-in to find both it and the outlet were partially melted away. Cue the racing pulse, cue stomach hitting the floor.
Josh was with me when I made the discovery. We remembered an evening a week or two ago when we were watching tv after the kids had gone to bed. We both smelled something funny. We looked closely at the space heater itself but didn’t check the outlet. We continued to run the space heater that evening until we went to bed and have had it running every day since.
We don’t know what caused the melting or what stopped it, all we know is that we’re ok, our precious children are ok, and our house – full of possessions both valuable and invaluable – is ok.
I quietly finished my vacuuming and Josh went back to what he was doing – and then it hit me. I was flooded with emotion. Is this not what I pray for daily? The divine protection of my family? Without question, it is. I had me an ugly cry. You know what I’m talking about.
Too often when we come away unscathed from a close call, we quickly forget the significance. We figure it wasn’t going to happen anyway; we often wonder why we worried in the first place. We chalk it up as a coincidence or an anomaly. There has to be a reasonable explanation. Maybe it wasn’t God. Time passes and the instance is forgotten.
Not this time. Not for me. I’m not going to quickly forget how I felt last night; and, until the outlet gets replaced, I’ll have a visual reminder. What I felt was God’s hand of protection surrounding my family. I imagined Him carefully re-checking the number of hairs on my head… yep, my child is ok. What an awesome thought! And it’s not just me, it’s not just Christians – He knows us all. We’re all precious to Him. As awesome as that is, my little brain cannot comprehend it.
Have you had a close call you won’t soon forget? A discovered lump that went away or turned out to be nothing? A loved one hospitalized? A fender bender that could have been so much worse? Remember it today.
I just HAD to share. I had a fun quilting entry all ready to go for today, but it can wait until next week.