Huh? How much did you thin k I could handle? | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Huh? How much did you thin k I could handle? | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lynette Carpenter
01/22/10
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There should be warning labels on days like that! One shouldn’t have to be taken completely by surprise when the unexpected happens! On the other hand, would I have faced the day with more peace in my heart, or a larger dose of bravery had I known what lay ahead? I doubt it.

I couldn’t have known that our extended family three-day Christmas celebration at a nearby camp would begin with one child getting accidentally locked in a bathroom for a long time before anyone found him, or that my six-year-old would get lost, only to willingly crawl into a car with a stranger. Amy had wandered in the wrong direction and was unable to find her way back to the house. Crying and afraid, she accepted the help of a woman driving by on the road. This stranger, identified only as Mrs. Perry-the-Platypus, very kindly returned Amy safe and sound, but the “what ifs” haunt me still.

After the scare with Amy and a refresher course on talking to strangers, I felt peace knowing that I had fulfilled my daily quota for both drama and trauma. I was sure I could now relax – the storms had passed. Somehow I missed the memo that it’s not always that easy. This day would end with a vomiting child and me driving home in the wee hours of the night.

After Corey’s third reminder of what he’d had for supper, I decided to take him home. In the midst of my weariness, I not-so-wisely chose to wear my jammies, slippers and a robe for the fifteen mile drive. It wasn’t until after I had hit the deer with my husband’s truck and was stomping around on the snow-packed road that I regretted my choice of wardrobe.

As I stood in the middle of Banker Street in my housecoat at 3:00 in the morning, I had one of those moments when I could only laugh. Corey was in the truck, puking into his coat (that part wasn’t funny), my slippers were reminding me that they were not made for this kind of weather, I was ridiculously tired, and that deer, to my amazement, had run away. Yet, all was calm. The night sky was clear and bright. I knew that my God was with me, even in the middle of chaos.

I wonder if Moses felt like that when he was standing between Pharaoh and the Red Sea. Could anything else go wrong? He had tried to do what was best for the Israelites, and now it looked like they were either going to drown… or die. Decisions, decisions! But as Moses stood on the banks of the Red Sea (in his robe, nonetheless) I’m sure he felt it! He must have felt a closeness to an Almighty God Who was in complete control!

I can’t control what happens in my life, and that can be a scary thought. But knowing that God is in control brings me comfort. Try as I might, I can’t protect my children from all that is out there in the world, but I rest in the knowledge that they have Someone so much greater than I watching over them!

I can rest knowing that the same God who parted the Red Sea for the Israelites, also sent Mrs. Perry-the-Platypus to rescue my daughter, just when she needed her.

I never got to meet Mrs. Perry-the-Platypus, but if you know her, hug her and tell her I said “Thank you!”

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