God's Hand

A few weeks ago, on a Saturday evening, we were all snuggled down in the basement watching the movie Life of PI (with the exception of the littles who were tucked in their beds sleeping away).

It had been a busy day.  Alex had spent a couple hours crafting away in her room making hair accessories for Shelby.  Abby had a friend over, and Clint and I, who often go out on Saturdays decided to stick at home with the kids and watch this movie.

We were all enthralled at the suspense of the ship sinking, the animals going crazy, and Pi trying to save his family when we heard a beeping noise in the background.  At first, we thought it was part of the movie, but after it continued Clint got up to go check it out.  He had been out of the room a minute or two and the noise continued.  I wondered if it might be the carbon monoxide detector so I got up to see.  After realizing that wasn't the source of the noise, but that it was actually the smoke alarm I walked by Alex's room and saw an orange glow coming from the crack at the bottom of her closed door.  I opened the door and was welcomed with a room full of smoke and flames coming from her crafting desk that she'd been working at a few hours earlier.

Meanwhile, Clint was investigating upstairs and smelled smoke in the master bath which is directly above Alex's room. He ran downstairs just in time to see me smother the fire with a blanket from the bed.  We were able to extinguish the fire with that and some water.  Amazingly, nothing of value was damaged.  Alex's iPad was sitting on the desk just inches from the flames but I was able to move it. There was a bunch of scrap fabric, a box of matches, and a couple kitchen lighters sitting on the desk that had helped fuel the flames.  We think the fire must have started when Alex had been making burnt edge flowers and a spark had landed in the fabric pile without her noticing.  After being allowed to smolder and with the flammable materials nearby it was able to catch fire.

The only thing that did get damaged was the top of the desk, and the drapes got scorched.  It is hard not to imagined what would have happened had Clint and I not been home.  If the flames would have reached the drapes it would have caught the ceiling on fire and then who knows the damage from there.

Would my kids have known what to do?

I

I know God was watching over us.  His hand is in our lives. That doesn't mean that accidents don't happen, and that we won't have our struggles, but I know he is there. 

He will give us the strength we need. He loves & protects us.