I do not say this lightly. But as of 2:24 a.m. I am beginning to think my family has avoided illness only because of supernatural intervention for the second time in as many weeks.

There is a ferocious stomach bug running through our Protestant circle of friends (does it make you laugh to know I mentally divide my life by my Catholic and my Protestant circles? My little life reflects what's been happening for almost five hundred years now - divided halves of the same whole). Sunday night before last I KNEW there was a possibility I was exposing my children to it, but I really wanted to take Communion. I normally think praying against minor illness is petty - we live in a fallen world, and people get sick. But that night I prayed - earnestly - that God would protect our family from stomach-related illness. And do you know what? He has. I honestly think every other child in the nursery that night caught it sometime the next week (along with a few others who were not there), but my family has been in the clear.

And then, this morning, Asher was complaining of a stomachache and headache. But he ate his breakfast, and was playful, so I didn't really think about it. When I picked him up from preschool he told me his stomach and head had hurt all day. He then came home and stayed on the couch for three hours. Stomachache, headache, lethargy ... in our house, this is how strep throat begins. Normally he'll start to run a fever just before bedtime (or sometime in the night), and by the next morning we'll be at the pediatrician's office. Only, Silas is scheduled to have his tonsils out in about five days, and he can't do that if he is sick, and so far every time Asher has had strep, Silas has had it about five days later. I called my friend and asked her to pray for grace for us. Instead, she had the nerve to pray that Asher wouldn't have strep! Inwardly I thought, well, it's too late for that, but who am I to argue with a prayer, right?

No fever, friends.

A few minutes later, he got off the couch and started playing. He stayed outside all afternoon and evening with Brian, and went to bed normally, fever free. As of 2:35 a.m. (yes it is, unfortunately) he is still sleeping soundly.

Maybe he's fighting it off this time.

All of this probably sounds petty, in light of real illness around me. But in my little world, avoiding a stomach bug and keeping my little boy well long enough to have the surgery that will help him stay well in the long run, is a blessing.

Thanks be to God.