The Unseen Guardian

“Mom, can we have a picnic?” Billy’s hazel eyes begged me to say yes.

I smiled at my five-year-old son. “That’s a great idea.”

I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Billy’s favorite, then I prepared carrot sticks and apples. Soon we were on our second-story deck overlooking azaleas, dogwood, and honeysuckle.

Billy munched on his sandwich and talked about kindergarten while I breathed in the fragrance of honeysuckle. Could this day be any better?

Billy’s German Shepherd, Gretchen, watched eagerly from the yard below us waiting for someone to throw her some food. Billy giggled and tossed part of his sandwich, then Gretchen caught it like an outfielder catching a fly ball.

I loved picnics with Billy, and I thanked God for blessing us with him. Billy was a gift from God. When Jim and I got married, we didn’t think we’d be able to have a child. Now that we had Billy, we were determined to do everything we could to take good care of him.

My mother had taken medication when she was pregnant with me, and it gave me a high risk of miscarriages and ruptured tubal pregnancies. It even decreased the possibility that I would ever get pregnant and have a baby. I’d almost died from a ruptured tubal pregnancy a few years before Billy was born. During my pregnancy with him, I’d been on bed rest almost the entire nine months due to complications. Thankfully, God was merciful and allowed Jim and I to have our precious son.

As I watched Billy laugh, a question troubled me. Could my husband and I take our only son to the mission field? We had a burden for the lost, and we’d both felt God’s call to be missionaries. But taking our son to a foreign country could be dangerous. We had no idea what would happen to him there. Still, the Lord spoke to us through personal Bible study, sermons at church, and songs and messages on Christian radio. We wanted to obey God, but if we did, how could we keep Billy safe?

God reminded us that He had given His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our sins. How could we not trust God and do whatever He called us to do?

We’d finally decided to apply for Bible school, and we even spoke with a realtor about selling our home, but I was still struggling. I loved our son, and I didn’t want to do anything that might harm him. I worried about taking him to a different country. I worried about leaving our home, our church, our friends, and our family, and going somewhere we didn’t know and didn’t belong.

Would God keep Billy safe if we went?

The phone rang, and I was tempted to ignore it. This was a precious moment with my son, and I didn’t want it to end. The phone kept ringing, and my curiosity pulled me to the kitchen to answer it.

It was good to hear from my friend, and we chatted while Billy waited on the deck. Then, there was a knock at the front door.

“I’ll get it, Mom.” Billy raced down the stairs and opened the door. “Hello. Hello!”

I said good-bye and hung up the phone, then I joined Billy. He stood at the open door peering outside.

I peeked out too, but I didn’t see anyone. “Who was it, Billy?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I heard someone knock. I really did, but I don’t see anyone.”

“I heard it too.” I looked outside again. “Hello, is anyone there?” No answer. I shrugged. “Why don’t we finish our picnic?”

Billy nodded and closed the door, then we went up the stairs and headed to the deck.

BOOM! A loud crashing sound came from the back of the house.

We approached the sliding glass door cautiously. The deck was gone! We opened the door carefully and looked down at the wreckage of broken boards far below us. Our deck had collapsed. We stood, stunned. If we had been on the deck when it fell, we would have been seriously injured or maybe even killed. I wrapped my arms around my son and held him close.

“Thank you, God,” I whispered.

“Why did our deck fall?”

“I don’t know, honey. I’m just glad we weren’t on it.”

“Me too.”

We stared at the remains of our deck.

Then my son turned to me. “Did my guardian angel knock so I’d leave the deck?”

I remembered a Bible verse about angels. “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” Hebrews 1:14 KJV

I smiled. “You may be right, Billy. You asked Jesus to be your Savior, so you have a guardian angel.”

Billy and I prayed and thanked God for protecting us, then we called my husband and told him what happened.

After the deck fell, I had more peace about taking Billy to the mission field. Our home sold quickly, then we went to Bible school. During our training and our years on the mission field, we often thought of the day an unseen guardian knocked on our door before the deck collapsed. God is faithful.