One evening after hosting a Bible study for homeschooling friends around a campfire, my observant son noticed a small amber-colored bottle lying on the ground. Walking up to me with the bottle in his hand, he began to read the letters on the bottle's torn label, "S-t-r-y-c-h . . . what's this, Mom?" he asked.The next five minutes were a blur. I had seen a white powder on my two-year-old daughter's clothes and assumed she'd been in the ashes of the campfire. However, I quickly realized the white powder on her clothes matched the contents of the bottle that my son had just found. My heart stopped as I spelled out the letters again, S-t-r-y-c-h . . . Strychnine! This was an old bottle of poison my grandfather had used years ago to kill rats on our farm! Somehow, we had missed seeing it when we had cleaned out the old shed before converting it into a playhouse. "Oh my!" I cried. "My daughter's been playing with poison!"
Every mom knows toddlers are forever putting things into their mouths, and I could only imagine how much of this poison my young daughter had ingested. Running into the house to call 911, I frantically prayed, "Please, help me Lord!" The anxious tone I heard in the voice of the poison control person gave me no reassurance. "Get her to the hospital as fast as you can," he said. "Strychnine doesn't lose its potency!" Looking at my husband's frightened face, I knew he was thinking the same thing as me — our precious baby girl was going to die!
(To be continued in tomorrow's Daily Focus)
Father, when disaster looms, I run to You, my Rock and my Strong Tower. Show me how to trust You even in the worst of circumstances. In Jesus' name, Amen.
