Tender Mercies

I recently read a definition of "tender mercies" of the Lord, but can't remember the exact wording. I think of them as those subtle miracles that happen to us, often daily, when the Lord reaches out his hand to bless us in some special way.

Yesterday, I witnessed what I'm sure was the Lord's hand in blessing my grandson, Carter, and blessing me to witness it. Bob and I took the kids, Brody, Kennedy and Carter, camping at Snow Canyon near St. George this weekend. We had arrived just before dark on Friday and got the last available site with hookups. In the morning I noticed two plants that were growing right next to the drive we were parked in, and cautioned the children strongly that coming in contact with either would cause them great pain and possibly serious injury. They had to walk between the car and these two plants each time they left the camper and came back to it. You can imagine how many times that was in two days. One was a Joshua tree -- I think -- and one branch of the spiny leaves reached out like thin daggers at face height for all three of the kids. The other plant was a large prickly pear cactus possibly two or two and a half feet in diameter and about two feet high, and covered with thousands of large needles sticking every which way. Just to be there for two days with the kids walking/running/skipping/tripping by there many times without incident is in itself a tender mercy, but the one that I speak of was even more specific.

After our last hike on Sunday before we returned home, the kids ran back to the camper -- Brody... Kennedy... and little Carter tagging behind trying to keep up. Brody and Kennedy passed these monster plants without incident. Carter tripped immediately in front of, and was headed into the cactus. He fell on his knees and, had his trajectory continued, he'd have landed face-first in that cactus. What happened was that for some unseen reason, his upper body swerved suddenly to the right and he missed the cactus completely. I'm certain there was an angel there, or the hand of God reached out to protect His little one. There's simply no other explanation.