The Faith of a Child

1994. We had gone out to dinner with my in-laws and afterwards we went to the boardwalk to look at the river and toss french fries to the birds and ducks. Our son was about two years old and loved to watch the ducks waddle up, expecting to be fed. It was a very pleasant evening, but as it started grow dark we all decided it was time to get out of the wind and go home. I was buckling our son in the car seat while my father-in-law got behind the wheel, my mother-in-law got in the front passenger seat, and my husband was getting in on the passenger side behind his mother. Car doors were slamming shut when suddenly my husband started screaming, "Open the door! Open the door!!!" His mother had shut her car door on his hand. When his hand was free, there was an indention across his middle and ring fingers between the middle knuckle and the knuckle behind the fingernails. The middle finger was the worst and had a blood blister developing. We hurried home so we could put his fingers in ice, praying and crying. He was in terrible pain.

Something very important to note: my husband is a musician. More importantly, he's a guitar player. Even more importantly he's a fingerstyle guitar player and it was his right hand that was shut in the door. A guitar player doesn't want to lose a finger, but it's really difficult to do a three finger roll with only two fingers.

When we got home, I left my husband sitting at the kitchen table with ice on his fingers and our little son sitting in his high chair next to his daddy. I was walking my in-laws out to the car and trying to console them that everything would be alright (whether I believed it or not). My mother-in-law was in tears. When I finally made it back to the kitchen, my husband was remarkably better in spirits.

"Bennett prayed for me," he said. "He looked at me and said, 'Pray?' so I nodded. He held my hand, we bowed our heads and he said, 'Daddy... boomboom... amen.'"
"You look better."
"I feel better."
Bennett smiled.

He kept his fingers in ice until bedtime about an hour later. The next morning, his hand was perfectly fine: no swelling, no pain, no stiffness, and no blood blister. I suppose the ice could be given the credit, except for one thing: there is a dent in the bone of his middle finger. It can be felt, but not seen.

Matthew 18:3 - 4
"Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."