Article July 23, 2001 Issue

God doesn't stay at home when the family takes a vacation

By Melissa Abbott

It was our last day at the beach in Florida. The sky was bright blue, and the warm temperature and gentle seas were ideal for playing in the surf. As our family of five waded along the shoreline, our daughter Gracie gradually ventured deeper into the ocean. One minute she was frolicking in the waves, and the next she came screaming out of the water. She held up her hand, and I brushed off the remains of a jellyfish from her fingers and palm.

She was crying and yelling almost uncontrollably. Regrets sped through my thinking. Gracie echoed the sentiment of some of them: "Why did I have to go swimming? ... I wish I never went in there!" Clearly, now was the moment of reckoning. Was chance, an accidental encounter with a jellyfish, going to disrupt our day, take away our joy, or mar our vacation?

The answer was, "No!" I encouraged Gracie to remember the truth—that we lived in God's kingdom, God's presence, that there are no accidents there, and that there was nothing in His creation to harm her.

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