Jake sat at the dining room table while I was cooking dinner and asked me if I still had a picture of him in his body cast from the accident. I said, "Yes, it's around here somewhere," as I pointed to the refrigerator full of pictures and schedules.
He told me we needed to keep that around and of course I agreed. Then he explained why, saying that if he ever does something great, like play basketball in college or something cool like that it would be a great story. Ya know, I get run over by my dad in a skid steer, broken leg....body cast.....had to learn to walk again...all that...ya know?
I smiled and said, yes Jake you're right, it would make a great story and I turned around and began to dice the mushrooms. And then I thought about it a little more and realized I had stopped telling him.
In 1999, when God performed the miracle of saving Jake from an accident that should have killed him, I was convinced he was saved for a reason. There's no way any two year old should survive being run over by a two ton piece of farm machinery except that God had performed a miracle for a reason.
Maybe the reason was to spare a dad a life of guilt. Maybe the reason was to spare a mom the heart-wrenching anguish of losing her baby. Or maybe the reason was because God was not quite done with Jacob W. Hart yet.
I'm convinced the reason is the latter and the first two are mere benefits of His miraculous grace. But whatever the reason, I've always said that God had a great plan for Jake, but somewhere in the busyness of four teenagers and farm life and daily writing and all the rest, I had forgotten to tell Jake about God's plan for his life.
The Bible says in Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
It's right there in black and white. God has a plan for each of us, a unique, wonderful, blessed, unimaginable plan for us. It's a promise kept by God. And unless we read it daily, we can lose sight of His plan and that He is in control.
I've tried to remember to tell my kids this, but apparently I stopped telling Jake. So yesterday after he began this God ordained conversation, I walked over, ran my hand over his sweaty head and said, "Yes, Jake, God didn't save you for nothing, He saved you for a reason. He's got great plans for you Jake, plans that you can't even imagine."
Jake smiled.
