Peering Through Life's Window

A Warm Welcome to Sarah Ruut How to Heal the Problem that Separates Us As I walked down the hallway past my daughter’s bedroom door, I noticed the distinctive smell of a struck match. Curious what was going on (since she was probably one or two at the time and didn’t have access to matches), I pushed open her door. There in the middle of her floor sat her older brother, an open box of matches before him and one black-tipped match lying on the carpet. I tried to keep panic from my voice. “What are you doing?” “I wanted to see how these work.” Oh, my… I proceeded to explain—again—why we don’t play with matches. He acknowledged that the flame had startled him, and he’d dropped the match. And I swallowed my panic yet again to gently explain to him what could have happened when he dropped that match! (Thankfully, the flame died before the match hit the carpet.) His eyes grew huge as he realized what he might have caused, and my sweet preschooler said, “I’m sorry...