She Still Smells the Smoke

In the last month of my second pregnancy, I stretched out on my bed to give my exhausted body some needed rest.

My twenty-three-month-old daughter lay down beside me and read to me in her little-girl style from her favorite book. Soon, I fell sound asleep.

At the time, we were living in a quiet suburb in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Her dad had gone to a two-day meeting in the capital, Kingston.

Each morning, she would ask, “Is Daddy coming now?” Of course, two days seemed like two years to her. Suddenly, I was awakened and terrified to find she was not beside me, sleeping or reading. My fear multiplied when I looked at the night table and noticed the bunch of keys was missing. Certainly she could not open two sets of locks.

The porch had a locked gate, and the small gate at the side of the garage had another lock. Impossible. I froze with fear when I saw that both gates were unlocked and wide open. I called her name at the top of my lungs but got no response.

I looked down the very long driveway toward the gateless entrance of our home. That was when I saw my neighbor holding my daughter’s hand and walking toward the house.

My daughter had her little suitcase because she had packed it to go to Kingston to meet her dad. My neighbor kept shaking her head in amazement.

I thanked her and hugged my little traveler.

My daughter later told me she was going toward the sidewalk just as our neighbor was reversing his seven-seater van onto the main road, headed toward her on the sidewalk. Of course, he did not see her little twenty-three-month-old body behind the van.

“Mommy, I still smell the smoke from the van’s exhaust,” she told me.

“Only an angel’s hand could have taken me out of the way,” she recalled.

Truly, God especially watches over innocent children—and all of us.

I have seen God’s protection over children so many times and in my own life as well! What an awesome God we serve who still sends angels to protect His children!

Claudette Garbutt-Harding