“I want my doll. I need my dolly!” exclaimed my three-year-old granddaughter, noting that her friend Taylor held a doll.
Sighing inwardly I turned to her. “You can get it when we come back. This will be just a short ride.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks as she expressed her anguish and dire need for dolly. Of course she needed it. How foolish of me to think for a moment that two little girls could enjoy riding in a wagon, one with a doll and the other without. “We’ll go back and get it,” I comforted.
It wasn’t that we’d gone that far anyway with my slow train of precious cargo—pushing Taylor’s baby sister in the stroller with one hand and pulling the big blue wagon with the other. My sole purpose for the afternoon was to provide a safe and pleasant time for all of them.
Back at the house we quickly found the needed doll and were on our way again. Destination: about half a block—down to the bend in the road and back. We’d already walked that way once with the two girls helping to push the stroller. Ours is a quiet neighborhood with little traffic. Even so, I’m always afraid a toddler will dart into the road. I felt safer with them in the wagon.
Sqealing Tires
We were half-way to our destination on our now happy journey when we heard the roar of an auto engine under top acceleration, quickly accompanied by squealing tires and screeching brakes. An instant later an auto, airborne as it missed the curve, plowed into the front lawn of the home at the bend in the road. It was right where I could possibly have been with the three children had not one of them wanted her doll!
Shaken, I turned our little caravan around, went home and called the police. They reported later that they didn’t think the teen driver of the car would try those tricks again.
The more I replayed the scene in my mind, the more I realized how the four of us could not have escaped death or serious injury had we been in the vehicle’s path. Over and over I thanked God for his goodness and for helping a little girl to need a dolly just when she did!
“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways” (Psalm 91:11).
“Lord, help me to be patient when things are not going MY way and to consider that, possibly, that’s all part of YOUR way.”
