Don't Hide.....

Being a mother of 3 boys, I have lots of jobs – teacher, nurse, disciplinarian, playmate, mediator, chef, maid, etc. And with all of those, the job that I seem to have the most is a nurse. Band aids make everything better – along with a kiss and a chocolate chip cookie! :-) Yesterday, Jackson had his first casualty at the hand of his big brother Caleb. Caleb is quite independent and loves to “help” me with Jackson. We were outside, and Jackson was buckled in the stroller. Caleb insisted on wanting to push him around all by himself. I stressed the importance of keeping the stroller on the deck and not going too far because he could fall down the steps. Caleb was being very good about pushing him slowly. He would push him a little bit, then stop and talk to him for a minute. Push a little more, talk a little more. The more comfortable he got with his job of pushing Jackson, the faster he would push him, and the less he was paying attention to what he was doing. I turned away from them for ½ second and the next thing I know Jackson is crying and so is Caleb. Caleb had gotten too close to the edge of the deck, the wheels of the stroller had gone over the edge, and Jackson had fallen face down into a pile of leaves. Thankfully the seat belt of the stroller worked exceptionally well, there were lots of leaves to break his fall, and there was only one small step from the deck to the ground!! Caleb yelled for my help but in the process of yelling for me to help Jackson, he ran and hid around the corner because he thought that with this incident, would most certainly bring about punishment. I ran and quickly rescued Jackson from the leaves as Caleb peered around the corner, crying and saying “Mommy, I am SO sorry!” Knowing that Caleb did not intentionally hurt his brother, I called him over to me hugged him, and told him that it would be all right. Aside from the scratch on Jackson’s head, he was just fine. I tried to explain to Caleb that when something like that happens, you cant go and hide, you have to help Jackson. In that, I thought about us and our walk with the Lord. How many times do we try to run and hide from God when we do something wrong. He sees everything, and even when we do something terrible, He is right there, ready to dry our tears, and forgive us if we just ask.