Tag: Children

Ahoy! It’s a Boy!

On By Tim ValentinoIn GeneralLeave a comment

The house is getting flooded already with crafts and decorations for my grandson’s baby shower, which isn’t happening until mid-October. Nevertheless, all the activity serves to heighten the anticipation of Samuel’s safe arrival in December, Lord willing. 

They’re planning a nautical-themed shower, so piles of “Ahoy! It’s a Boy!” things are stacking up everywhere. Not only that, all my media feeds are filling up with baby ads. I tend to be a soft-touch, so I’m trying to resist being dazzled by all the cute things I could buy for him. Pray for my self-control. 🙂

My prayer is that Christ will be at the helm of Samuel’s life, and the Holy Spirit will help him navigate the turbulent waters of this world in due course. Even now, the Lord is at work. As King David wrote:

For you created my inmost being; 
you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
Psalm 139:13-14

Parental (and grandparental) love predates a birth, just like God’s love for us (Jeremiah 31:3). Moreover, it’s conferred independently of the child’s status, health, or future performance. It just is. “Love is as strong as death,” said Solomon, “its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame” (Song of Solomon 8:6).

BBC News published a story two years ago titled “Babies Born at 22 Weeks Can Now Survive.” That’s a relief since my grandson is now 22 week in utero. Still, such a delivery 18 weeks early would be risky. Not impossible, just precarious. But even there, “With God, all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). God has a good track record making and preserving his miracle babies. May it be so here, too.

We can’t wait to meet you in person, dear one.

BONUS: Since my head has been in this space for several months, a recent Babylon Bee post really cracked me up:

Random Thoughts as a New Season Approaches

On By Tim ValentinoIn GeneralLeave a comment

1. One of the benefits of living in Pennsylvania is getting to experience the delightful change of seasons throughout the year. The shifts here are significant enough to be noticeable but not extreme enough to be intolerable. Fall is my favorite—the look, the smell, the colors, the feel—but all of them have their benefits. This week it looks like we’ll emerge from the long, frigid winter, but with PA you never really know. Still, it’ll be nice to take a break from snow duty for a while, although I love snow. Of course, the approach of spring means lawn mowing is right around the corner, right?

2. I saw a great sign at the pool today: “Whatever you’re planning to do today, do it with the confidence of a 4-year-old in a Batman cape.” Yes! That was all the inspiration I needed to swim 2500 meters (100 laps). It probably wasn’t pretty, but I made it. So what if my shoulders feel like melted butter? “I am Batman.” Ha! Speaking of which, I didn’t plan it this way, but I have five different pairs of Speedo jammers—one for each day of the week. So, now I start out with black on Monday and get lighter as the week unfolds. Maybe I should end with dark blue instead of red if I’m going to be Batman.

3. Relatedly, research indicates that six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. By comparison, adults laugh 15-100 times a day. Be six again.

4. I’m having fun decorating the newly renovated living room, even as renovations begin on the bathroom. Just got a framed print called “Winter Mist,” which works perfectly in the room, along with a set of tiered candle holders and bookends with an oil-rubbed bronze look. Just a few more items to get and/or set out, and the project will be complete.

5. I recently saw a fun screen shot of somebody’s Network Preferences dialog box. Apparently, there’s a feud between two households sending messages to each other by how they name their wi-fi connections. Check out the last two listings. As a bonus, notice how the computer also commits a grammatical boo-boo. It should read, “None of your preferred networks is available.” (Not being snarky; we all make mistakes. I’m just surprised that this got past the editors and showed up on a computer.)

6. I got a kick out of this recent “Brevity” cartoon by Dan Thompson. I see Genghis Khan, Chaka Khan, and (I think) Star Trek Kahn. Nicely done, Dan. I guess we can call it your ComiKhan. (Sorry.)

7. A horse is a horse, of course, but there’s something majestic about this one. I’d love to learn how to ride better—though not while the horse is in this position.

8. Less majestic and far more pompous is the house cat. Mrs. Mosby, my daughter’s cat, is getting bigger and slightly more friendly, but she still cops an attitude on a fairly regular basis. This comic could have been drawn by her.

9. Speaking of animals, “Perhaps the butterfly is a proof that you can go through a great deal of darkness yet still become something beautiful” (B. Taplin).

Be blessed and have a great rest of the week!

Image Credits: qz.com; wallpaperflare.com; shutterstock.com; missionbreakout.london; alldiamondpainting.com; Cláudio Diaz mejias.

Jesus, the Preemie

On By Tim ValentinoIn Bible & Theology3 Comments

When our kids were younger, we always wanted to help them remember that Christmas was about the birth of Jesus. Everything else—the gifts, the lights, the dinner, the travel, the parties—was a celebration of that. To assist in this effort, we would set up the nativity scene with everything in it—except baby Jesus.

Every morning leading up to Christmas Day, I would take them past the manger and ask, “Is baby Jesus here yet?” It created a sense of anticipation, the kind for which Advent is well known. Finally, when the big day arrived, and we all saw that Jesus was now in his manger, we could celebrate, exchange gifts, and make merry. 

I suppose I made it a bit worse by insisting we read Matthew 2:1-12 around the tree before the first gift was opened. It takes less than two minutes to do so, but eager kids can say with their faces, “Dad, we already know the story,” even if, out of respect, they don’t use words. Message received. But we always read the story, anyway. We still do, astonished that it’s Jesus’ birthday, but we get the gifts. The very practice itself gives us a whiff of the gospel.

Last year gave us a dilemma. The family rule says, “No gifts until baby Jesus is in the manger, and no baby Jesus is in the manger until Christmas Day.” But family and work schedules required that we hold our gift exchange on Christmas Eve. What to do? We actually had a serious theological discussion about it!

I proposed that we consider Jesus a preemie. That is, he would come earlier than expected that year, allowing us to celebrate a day in advance. Would that be bending the rule too much? Some thought it did, so I offered an alternative rationale. In Jewish reckoning, the new day begins at sundown, so we could legitimately hasten the arrival of Christmas by about six hours—just what we needed to make the holiday schedule work.

Problem solved. And the family rule stayed intact. 

Silliness aside, those ponderings got me to thinking about the non-romantic aspects of Jesus’ birth—the parts that don’t make it onto the gold-foil Christmas cards with glittered edges. Things like diapers. Placenta. Giving birth 90 miles away from your home. Strange visitors and bug-eyed prophets showing up out of the blue to gawk at your baby. Political machinations behind the scenes putting your child at risk. The first Christmas was no picnic. 

Jesus was born “in the fullness of time” (Gal 4:4), but Mary probably didn’t have a specific due date in mind. Did Jesus—from her perspective—come earlier or later than expected? Was he, in fact, born prematurely? When he was born, how much did he weigh? Did he have hair? Was he jaundiced? What would his Apgar score be had he been born in our day? We don’t know for sure, but the questions themselves highlight the earthiness of it all. His conception was miraculous, but his birth took place in a most ordinary way. 

As such, Jesus stands in solidarity with babies of all kinds, including preemies. Including those who, like me, were unwanted at birth and placed in an orphanage from day one. Whenever I see a TV commercial for a children’s hospital, I think about emptying my bank account and sending them everything I have. “Jesus loves the little children. All the children of the world.” He used to be one.

As noted in a previous post, the Incarnation puts me on overload. I can never fully get my mind around it. Thankfully, I don’t have to. I can just enjoy what God has done for us, and try to love him in return. Moreover, I can live with less-than-perfect devotionals that have already been written for this year. Be looking for them toward the end of next week if you like.

  • “Divine Hospitality: God at Home in a Fractured World”
  • “Impossible Journey: Our Down-to-Earth God”
  • “God Has Landed: Harry Potter and Jesus”

Until then, be a child at heart. For of such is the kingdom of God (Luke 18:16).

Image Credits: renestance.com; pexels.com.