Yesterday my 2 year-old son Joshua pushed my 5 year-old daughter Deborah off of the big green chair. How this happened is beyond me ;-), but apparently her head thunked pretty hard on the floor, and she began to cry quite vehemently, while holding her injured head. At the time, I was tending another child and only vaguely aware of what was happening, but it captured my full attention when Joshua became immediately contrite and sought me out.
(His words seem to be the subject of a lot of blog entries lately ;-). Perhaps I should rename my blog to reflect this :-).)
Anyway, Joshua was quite beside himself with grief, and he sobbed to me, "Mama, you have to fix Debbie!"
When I understood him, it became difficult for me to keep a straight face, but I tried very hard as I gathered my big girl in to my arms and felt her head for a goose egg. I assured Josh that Deborah was going to be just fine; that she didn't even have a goose egg, and he finally began to quiet down.
As I reflected on this, it became apparent that our children really believe that parents can make it all better. Parents fix the bleeding owie, quell the fear, soothe the fever and protect children from harm (mostly).
But some day our kids will be in a situation where mom or dad will not be able to "fix" things. And that is why it is so paramount that we direct them consistently to the Lord Jesus Christ. Our kids will one day be separated from our love, but praise be to the Almighty God, who wrought his great power in the all-sufficient work of Jesus Christ, that nothing in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of Christ.
"For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39
Later on the same day, Joshua came to Deborah and said to her, smiling "did Mama fix you Debbie?" :-)
Oh my! Poor Deb. Around 15 years ago I found myself in nearly the same situation. My son fell out of the neighbors tree (only 4 feet), but he landed on some roots. He was brought home immediately by his friends father. To my amazement he didn't cry much. I felt his head, and there was the big good egg. BUT after a few minutes he started vomiting. After the second time of this, we took him to the emergency room. They did xrays, and said they couldn't find anything. Right as we were getting ready to leave the hospital he vomited again. They then took a second look at the xray and saw that he had fractured his skull. At that point I froze. He was taken by ambulance to STL Childrens Hospital, and watched over night. After having a headache for a couple of days he was fine. What a frightening moment, one of many (may I add). It's all part of parenting. Thanks for sharing. ph
ReplyDeleteKids can get hurt so easy. I remember when my brother, fell out of a large walnut tree! As the ambulance people carried him toward the ambulance he waved bye bye, what a relief! As far as he fell he could have really done some damage. I believe God protected him at that moment.
ReplyDeleteThank you God for your protecting hand!
I find it interesting that the male 2 year old seems to be feeling those protective instincts of adult males. First, when one of my daughters needed correcting, my two-year-old Benjer, sensed danger and put himself between me and the sister. Then, when a different daughter banged her head on the wooden kitchen floor, he went to help her, saying, "No, no, no, no, no..." He was definitely trying to "fix" his sisters when they were hurt.
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