It was last Friday, and a desire to imitate Zendaya almost led to the death of my youngest granddaughter. I do not fault the actress or Hugh Jackman - not a bit. Kids are so influenced by the movies they see or even film clips.
My young granddaughter who has just turned 8 is fascinated by the circus portrayed in The Greatest Showman. Who can blame her? The movie itself is extremely well done, and the music is superb. Never Enough by Lauren Allred (with the on screen lipsynching by Rebecca Ferguson) is a modern day classic.
While my son-in-law was at work and my daughter working from home, our little sweet girl decided to play circus. So she climbed on top of a low backed chair and jumped into the family room curtains to imitate what she'd seen. Unbeknownst to the rest of the family, she got caught with them twisted around her neck.
Her oldest brother "just happened" to come downstairs to get a drink and discovered his sister hanging there rather lifeless and blue. He screamed and screamed and screamed from sheer shock, so my daughter bolted out of her office to discover the horror of it all.
When she came into the room, her daughter was blue and hanging above the back of the chair in the curtain. She had tried to do a flip with the curtain, so it was tangled in a way her Mom couldn’t immediately figure out how to loosen it. So, the sweet little girl is off the ground higher than the back of the chair and can’t touch anything so her body weight is pulling the sheer curtain tight.
Imagine my daughter's panic! She begins to yell for scissors, and as the boys are
getting them, she gets the curtain loose and lays a blue and
unresponsive girl on the ground. After a couple seconds she starts
crying and coughing. They call the ambulance and since it was “a
hanging” police had to come (3 police and then also rescue with fire
team) and question my daughter. My son-in-law, a fire chief, is flying home from the station at an ungodly speed.
The ambulance comes, and thankfully as they are taking her to the hospital, she seems rather normal but very frightened as you would expect. The doctors examine her and come to the conclusion after many scans and tests that she will be ok. They tell the devastated but relieved parents that had her brother found her one minute later, she would have died.
Why? That's what we keep asking ourselves. I keep having these verses go through my head, "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, or those who are called according to his purpose." These words from the book of Romans chapter 8 help keep things in perspective.
As for now, we are all healing. In the midst of the grieving for everyone in Uvalde, Texas, this seems so minor. And it is in comparison. May God himself have mercy on us all while evil and the evil one temporarily have dominion over our world.
