Jake sat at the dining room table while I was cooking dinner and asked 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 photos and schedules.

He told me we needed to keep that around and, of course, I agreed. Then he explained why, saying if he ever does something great – like play basketball in college or something cool like that – it would be a great story. You know, I get run over by my dad in a skid steer, broken leg ... body cast ... had to learn to walk again ... all that ... you know?

Wondering where this all came from, I realized we had been thick into the Summer Olympics, glued to the TV and enjoying all the back stories of the athletes who defeated odds to get to the games. Stories of heroism, athleticism, dedication, victory and defeat – all of them just as good as the next.

All of them left you with a lump in your throat and pride in your heart. So why wouldn’t Jake be thinking of the same thing?

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 what 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 have survived 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 from a life of guilt. Maybe the reason was to spare a mom from 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 was the latter, and the first two were mere benefits of His miraculous grace. But whatever the reason, I’ve always said God had a great plan for Jake – yet, somewhere in the busyness of four teenagers, farm life, 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, 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, plans that you can’t even imagine.”

And Jake smiled.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Melissa Hart may write to her in care of this publication.