Fallon Fell

On Saturday, December 3, 2011, my one-year old granddaughter Fallon fell down a flight of stairs; and I saw her do it. I want to tell you that she is OK and survived (physically) with only a very small bump on her head. 

Several of us were helping Fallon’s parents finish off the lower level of their house, and Fallon wanted to come down the stairs to see us. I heard her coming down the steps but my brain didn’t register what she was doing until she had already begun to fall.

Even now, as I close my eyes, I can still see her falling. And I can still her crying and screaming as she bounced off each step; every “thud” from her body and head hitting echoes in my head. My soul was in anguish and looked to see God in this; and so I seek Him to see how He was there in our moment of need.

The apostle Paul wrote in the Bible in 1Thessalonians 5:16-18 that we are to:^“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” In EVERYTHING? Even when Fallon fell?

King David had the perspective that even when things go bad we need to give thanks because they would have been a lot worse had the Lord not been there.

David wrote about this in Psalm 124:

“If it had not been the LORD who was on our side,” Let Israel now say— ² “If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, When men rose up against us,³ Then they would have swallowed us alive, When their wrath was kindled against us; ⁴ Then the waters would have overwhelmed us, The stream would have gone over our soul;⁵ Then the swollen waters Would have gone over our soul.”  ⁶ Blessed be the LORD, Who has not given us as prey to their teeth. ⁷ Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers The snare is broken, and we have escaped.⁸ Our help is in the name of the LORD, Who made heaven and earth."

Christian author Phillip Keller writes; “It has been well said that the true measure of any man’s spirituality is the degree to which he can detect God in the most simple events around him.”  As the scriptures say; “so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; ²⁸ for in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:27-28b.

When we look to the Lord to get His perspective, often times He will give us the bigger picture. We may never know just how many times God has protected us from harm without us even knowing about it. Just the night before while playing hockey, another player slashed me across the face with his stick. The force was hard enough that it should have broken my nose (again) but it didn’t because I had just installed a face shield on my hockey helmet.  God had been on my side to provide the shield and to give me the sense to put it on and start wearing it.

How was He there when Fallon fell? A friend of mine, Ben, was cognitive enough to reach out and grab Fallon before she went all the way down the steps to the concrete floor below. And, even though there were a variety of tools on the steps, Fallon missed hitting any of them. And Fallon, after throwing up because of the trauma, was able to calm down and rest and return to her happy self. And so were the rest of us; especially my daughter, Fallon’s mom (who is now pregnant with her second child). For that I am so very grateful because God had been on our side.

How about you; do you struggle to see God in the midst of the everyday events or in the trauma that invades your life?  If you are one of His children, it does make a big difference as to how you get through the “falls” in your lives. Don't hold back from Him; He wants you to come just as you are.

Call 1-888-NEED-HIM someone is waiting to talk with you. Or http://www.needhim.org

 

"Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."