Every summer the cuzzy-wuzzies come to visit. (That’s my nephew’s term for the cousins.) We always enjoy the week together and it has become tradition that we go camping for a couple of nights during that week.
We always have some sort of excitement of these camping trips. One time my nephew got burned in the face by a lantern. One time my niece made a “fishing pole” with a string and a clothespin she found lying around and caught a copperhead! Another time my daughter and two of her friends came upon a rather large copperhead. They screamed loud enough to bring nearby fishermen to their rescue.
Then there was last summer. It was our first night and we were all sleeping soundly. All of a sudden we were awakened to the scariest sound I have ever heard in my life. It was a tree falling! It sounded close by and there was a mad scramble in the adult tent to find eyewear. The younger kids were all in another tent and I didn’t know if they were okay or not.
We all piled out of our tent in our half-sleep stupor to find that the other tent was still standing. We were relieved, yet my heart was pounding out of my chest.
My husband got a flashlight and was trying to find the tree that had fallen. Of course, it was 2:00 in the morning and in the woods, so it was pitch black. We heard other campers moving around as well. We saw a lot of flashlights moving around across the creek from us and heard someone yell, “Here it is. It’s just a small one.”
We tried to follow his light to where it pointed. However, what we saw was no small tree. What he saw was a small tree that the big tree knocked down in its wake. The bigger tree used to stand only about two feet from the corner of the kids’ tent. It fell across the creek and into the neighbor’s site. They opened the door of their tent to find the tree landed about five feet from their tent, taking their screen tent down with it.
How no one was hurt, is amazing. It was God. He had His hand of protection on all of us. The kids had been playing underneath that tree in the creek all day long. If it had fallen any sooner, one of them would have been seriously hurt, or worse. If it had fallen at dinnertime, the other family would have been in their screen tent eating and been hurt. God had chosen an appointed time for that tree to fall, when no one would be in its path.
We may not know of all the times when God protects us from harm, but this was one time my husband pointed out to the kids that we had prayed for protection while we were camping and God had answered that prayer. Thank God for all of the times He protects you and you are unaware.
We were all a little jumpy for a few days after that. After we got home, some neighbors set off some firecrackers, which is a very similar sound to tearing wood. The dog and I both jumped up, startled. He ran behind the couch and I went to investigate and then laughed at myself for being so paranoid.
In the next blog, my first speaking engagement. I may have looked confident, but my knees were knocking and I was dizzier than I have ever been in my life, of course, the cough medicine I took beforehand may have had something to do with that…
We always have some sort of excitement of these camping trips. One time my nephew got burned in the face by a lantern. One time my niece made a “fishing pole” with a string and a clothespin she found lying around and caught a copperhead! Another time my daughter and two of her friends came upon a rather large copperhead. They screamed loud enough to bring nearby fishermen to their rescue.
Then there was last summer. It was our first night and we were all sleeping soundly. All of a sudden we were awakened to the scariest sound I have ever heard in my life. It was a tree falling! It sounded close by and there was a mad scramble in the adult tent to find eyewear. The younger kids were all in another tent and I didn’t know if they were okay or not.
We all piled out of our tent in our half-sleep stupor to find that the other tent was still standing. We were relieved, yet my heart was pounding out of my chest.
My husband got a flashlight and was trying to find the tree that had fallen. Of course, it was 2:00 in the morning and in the woods, so it was pitch black. We heard other campers moving around as well. We saw a lot of flashlights moving around across the creek from us and heard someone yell, “Here it is. It’s just a small one.”
We tried to follow his light to where it pointed. However, what we saw was no small tree. What he saw was a small tree that the big tree knocked down in its wake. The bigger tree used to stand only about two feet from the corner of the kids’ tent. It fell across the creek and into the neighbor’s site. They opened the door of their tent to find the tree landed about five feet from their tent, taking their screen tent down with it.
How no one was hurt, is amazing. It was God. He had His hand of protection on all of us. The kids had been playing underneath that tree in the creek all day long. If it had fallen any sooner, one of them would have been seriously hurt, or worse. If it had fallen at dinnertime, the other family would have been in their screen tent eating and been hurt. God had chosen an appointed time for that tree to fall, when no one would be in its path.
We may not know of all the times when God protects us from harm, but this was one time my husband pointed out to the kids that we had prayed for protection while we were camping and God had answered that prayer. Thank God for all of the times He protects you and you are unaware.
We were all a little jumpy for a few days after that. After we got home, some neighbors set off some firecrackers, which is a very similar sound to tearing wood. The dog and I both jumped up, startled. He ran behind the couch and I went to investigate and then laughed at myself for being so paranoid. 
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