Someone to watch over me

My daughter and her family went to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner last week.
The mid week crowd was sparse and there were only two or three other families in the restaurant. The feeling of “having the place to themselves” caused my daughter and her husband (mom and dad) to loosen the leash and allow our two grandsons ages 6½ and 1½, a bit more freedom than usual. Keeping one eye on them instead of two, the boys were running and playing with great abandon. In short, they were having a blast.

As our daughter tells it, she glanced at the boys playing together and when she looked again, the younger one had disappeared from her line of sight. She quickly scanned the room and then ran over to where she last saw him. There was no sign of him.

As the sense of fear and panic mounted, a plan to divide and conquer materialized with dad going one way and big brother another, while mom headed toward the front door. They were all moving quickly and calling his name when mom caught a glimpse of her oldest son from across the room. He was headed toward the bowling lanes with a big smile on his face.

As she quickly made her way across the restaurant to the bowling lanes, there was our youngest grandson racing up, down, and across the bowling lanes as fast as his short, little legs would carry him. He was tumbling, sliding, and giggling for all he was worth to the great amusement of the other patrons who, prior to the last few minutes had been bowling without distraction.

I don’t know if any other 19 month-old boy on the planet had as much fun as our grandson that evening. He had no clue that mom, dad, and big brother were frantically looking for him or that he could have been hit by a bowling ball or eaten by the pin sweeper. He was just enjoying life.

After hearing the blow by blow report firsthand from my daughter, I was thankful that our grandson hadn’t wandered too far away and that he was found so quickly. God is so good to protect our children (and grandchildren) and keep them safe.

As I thought about this minor misadventure with a happy (and funny) ending, I was reminded of the way God pays close attention to our whereabouts and comes looking for us when we wander off. Suddenly, the words to an old hymn came to mind, “His eye is on the sparrow and he watches over me.” What a comforting realization.