It was late on a Wednesday afternoon, and I had picked my nine-year-old son up from a violin lesson. I was to conduct the Wednesday testimony meeting at our branch Church of Christ, Scientist, that evening, and we were in a hurry to get there. 

I parked my car at the church, grabbed my son’s violin, and accidentally slammed the door hard on his right hand. He yelled out in pain, and I quickly opened the door. My first thought was, “How could I have been so stupid?” While comforting him as best I could in the moment, I looked at his hand, which was visibly injured.

My second thought, I’m chagrined to say, was, “Thank heaven it was his bowing hand and not his fingering hand for playing the violin.” But that thought awakened me from the belief that my son could have been out of God’s care for even an instant. And my third thought was to talk to my son about how we could pray and wake up to the assurance of God’s ever-present care right then and there.