from the lips of babes

We just got back from a 5 night stay at my parent's house, during which we celebrated my Grandmother's 90th birthday, the independence of our country and our family. I think 13 family members from Chicago flew in, several from all over KS . . . my parents hosted the reunion.

As other parent's will testify, sleeping away from home with small children may actually involve little sleeping, unfortunately. Our kids are actually pretty good sleepers now, but Warrick got some sort of bug - fever, loss of appetite and fatigue being the only symptoms we could detect. Of course, he can't say, my ________ hurts. He did tell us his thumb hurt, but that was from a slam in a door.

Anyway, he woke up in the night on Saturday night and Brett brought him downstairs. He ended up really waking up and being chatty. Kept repeating "Josh . . . Amy" "Josh . . . Amy" - some of our friends here who he, honestly, doesn't see that often. Brett goes to school with Josh and talked with him last night. On Saturday night - very late, they had been in a car accident. They were on their way home to their apt. north of town, came up over a hill and hit a man who was standing in the middle of the road. He was drunk and had been kicked out of the car by his wife, and was then trying to flag down another driver coming from the opposite direction in efforts of getting home.

Josh was driving their truck and saw him in just enough time to brake. The impact smashed the 25 yr. old man into the grill and hood and then threw him many feet away. There are fingerprints and dragging smudges in the hood ( along with significant denting )- Brett saw it this morning and described it as "eerie" . . . only time I've ever heard him use that word.

Josh had to administer CPR until paramedics came. I don't know every detail of the story, but I know that he should have died and he's alive and heading home from the hospital 5 days later. He had knee surgery and a badly broken leg. There is more, but he is alive. Josh and Amy visited him in the hospital and told him about Jesus.

The guy is 25. He has four kids. He has a wife. He is alive and shouldn't be.

AND, Warrick woke up in the night saying their names shortly after the accident happened. Brett and I both heard him saying "Josh ... Amy" over and over. We hadn't even talked about them or seen them recently.

So, I'm thankful today that this man gets another chance. I'm also sobered and stilled that God used the tongue of my son to get our attention. When he does this again (and there have been other times when he's repeated someone's name over and over at a seemingly random time), I will more quickly recognize it as God borrowing my young son's voice to get our attention to pray. To love our friends. To call and listen. To help.

Because, I don't think this was a coincidence.