When Elliot turned one, he was given a shape sorter for his birthday. Despite our best efforts to interest him in it, he never played with it. But 4 years down the track, it’s getting a workout. Our little Callum loves this kind of play. Clearly a different character to his older brother. And to his mother! The other day he went into the pantry and took everything off the shelves so he could line it up neater.
There’s a great joy in discovering the different personalities and preferences of your children. There are so many things that I love about Elliot, and points of connection for him and me: his verbal nature and love of words and narrative, his physicality and expressiveness, his dramatic flair, his charm. I’m looking forward to discovering more about Callum, but already his little quirks are warming my heart.
In Genesis, the creation myths tell of a world that is chaotic, and of a God who speaks order into it. And so what was formless takes shape, what was empty becomes filled, what was dormant bears life. And God makes humans in his image, to be like him, in this bringing order from chaos, and he tasks them with doing so. We do this in great ways, like those who provide infrastructure such as running water to whole cities, and in small, like a tiny human ordering the pantry. And so we are like our Creator who both tips over the water jars of heaven and gives each drop of dew.
My first son gets the power of words. My second son sees the beauty in order. And I feel like I learn more about God, myself and what it means to be human by watching them.
Categories: Uncategorized Written by Tamie
Tamie Davis
Tamie Davis is an Aussie living in Tanzania, writing at meetjesusatuni.com.
Meet Jesus at uni 
Tami, I can’t remembered if I have commented on your blog, but I just love this insight of yours so much. And I should say, I am big fan of your blog in general :^)
I also have two boys who are shaping up to be quite different from one another. This is diverges slightly from your point, but my younger son, S., is now 17 months and was very unwell when he was wee. He cried inconsolably for hours, with pain that I couldn’t fix. And I remember thinking, “I am being stretched by you in ways that no relationship has ever required me to stretch”. What a gift it was to learn that I could never fully understand or fix anyone’s pain… something that I knew rationally, but needed a good lesson in reality to let it set in
My elder son, 5 1/2 years, loves words too, and is so full of imagination. My younger one–and it does not surprise me with how early he had to feel his body–is so… um… “bodily”? He is grounded and often moves like a wild animal and expresses so much emotion through his body. Amazing (and frightening!) to watch.
Thanks for sharing Ruth! <3
sorry for spelling your name wrong :^s