By the grace of God

It is truly by the grace of God that our dear little Peter is still with us today.

I am still a bit trembling recalling last evening's event. 

We took Peter to a gathering for the first time.  Knowing he is an adventurous little fella, we had been keeping an eye on him the whole time.  However, when it came time to say good bye, we let our guard down, the four of us thought the other persons were watching him. 

While we were saying our long good byes, Peter apparently ran outside through the opened front door and wandered into the street - the 45 mph main street.  We were not aware that he was gone until we heard someone yelling from the front of the house.  My instinct just flared up and I shouted "Peter!" and looked around for him.  No, he was not in the house!  I raced outside and there he was, being held tightly by an elderly black man.  The man was huffing and puffing and said that he happened to be taking his evening walk and saw Peter ran out of the house but he thought the parents wouldn't be far behind but then he saw Peter started taking off from the sidewalk and ran to the street.  He knew he had to do something!  He ran after Peter and grabbed him away from the street and yelled toward the house to get our attention.

We couldn't thank him enough for the Samaritan act.  Ironically, he was not from the neighborhood.  Our friend has never seen him before.  We invited him to come into the house but he said no, he had to go home. 

Had he not been taking that walk, had he not been just a few feet away from Peter, I would not be here writing this post.  After we put Peter down for the night (after many extra hugs and kisses) and watched a short old movie with the other two children (we were blocking out the emotion), we finally got to our bed and we started sopping.  It was such a wake-up call for us that we need to really keep an eye on Peter regardless if we have the other two children or anyone's help in watching the little guy.  We asked the Lord for forgiveness of our failure of keeping a close eye on Peter.  We thanked the Lord that Peter is still with us.

I believe God sends angles to protect His sheep.  I truly believe that he has sent one last evening to protect Peter. 

Thank you, Lord.