09 Jun He Will Command His Angels

It was a hot May day in Georgia. We had just returned from my Grandma’s memorial service and were spending time with extended family at my parents house. My brother and husband both went to the boat dock with six of the kids and they were having a blast swimming and jumping off the dock into the water.

I was catching up with my Aunt and Uncle when I heard my mother’s anxious voice, “Laura, Chesed is hurt. You need to come right now!” With four kids, I must confess my first thought was not one of fear. “She’s probably scraped her knee and needs a bandaid,” I thought.

And yet as I walked downstairs and watched my husband carrying my six year old daughter into the house screaming and crying, my heart leapt into my throat.

“What happened?” I asked. My husband explained that the kids had been playing a game of tag and Chesed’s cousin was “it.” Chesed had climbed to the top of the dock and crouched low in one of the corners to hide. While hiding, she lost her balance and fell backwards over 9 feet off the dock, flipping once and landing on the hard wooden dock below.

I was speechless. I grew up swimming at this dock every summer and never in my years of summers had we seen someone fall off the top dock. Now it had happened to my little girl.

We held ourselves together for her sake, conducting a thorough assessment of her pupils, head, neck, and body. We were all amazed as we realized that other than a scrape on her head, arm, and leg, she was shaken up but fine.

“Mommy, hold me,” She said.  And oh how I wanted to! I held her for a long time and we stayed, just she and I, in a dark room with a blanket wrapped around us both. I read her stories to help her calm down. Then we prayed together and thanked God for sending his angels to protect her.

A little later, my sister in law came to her saying, “Chesed, your angels have been working overtime!” reminding us of this verse: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 18:10)

Do you believe that God assigns angels to protect our children (and us!) and watch over them? After our car accident only days earlier I was reminded of this truth and now I was facing its reality again. How comforting is this truth!

We were living in Psalm 91.

We thanked the Lord who had commissioned his angels that day to protect Chesed and I was once again humbled, recognizing that there are 10,000 moments a mother doesn’t see and God knows we need lots of help!

It’s amazing what can happen in a moment. It’s amazing to me how many moments we brush close to death and do not even realize it because God has protected us. But in those moments when we walk away unscathed from a serious accident or fall, we realize our Heavenly Father’s watchful eyes have been caring for us and preserving us all along.

My family has been reflecting lately on God’s sovereignty over the length of our earthly lives. We came to Georgia to celebrate my Grandmother, who entered Heaven at the age of 96. It was her time to taste glory.

Our devotional reading that morning was about timing in Jesus’ life; How God the Father sent an angel to warn Joseph in a dream to flee to Egypt from Herod’s soldiers who were killing all the young boys in Bethlehem. He was spared because it wasn’t Jesus’ time.

And yet when His Father revealed that it was his time to die for the sins of mankind, Jesus yielded in obedience, knowing He would rise again from the dead and by his rising grant eternal life to all those who trust in Him.

God preserved our family in a recent major car crash because it wasn’t our time to go to Heaven; He still has good work for us to do here. He preserved Chesed’s life when she fell off the dock that day because it wasn’t her time. He has a plan for her life and as her mother I can’t wait to watch it unfold!

And if you are living and breathing today, God has a very specific plan for your life. He is the one who gave you life; He sustains your life down to the hairs of your head, and He is the only one who can say when your life on earth should end, for all our days are numbered.

We are not promised tomorrow. But we have been given the gift of today. Let’s live it to the full for the glory of God!