One of a Kind

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you;  I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”  Jeremiah 1:5

What is it that makes each child so very different?  Just how many opposites can you have?!  Even from the womb I have noticed significant differences.  For instance, although most babies would stop kicking when “Daddy” would try to feel the kicks, number 5 seemed to say, “Ah, it’s Daddy.  Time to practice Karate!”   I didn’t even feel baby number 7 moving until I was 20 weeks along, yet I have literally felt this one since I was only 12 weeks.   (I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t watched the baby moving the screen during an ultrasound and realized that what I was feeling very definitely coincided with the movements I felt!)   Now that I am 20 weeks along and feel the strong kicks of my unborn child, I wonder how it is possible that I was only starting to feel the last baby at this point.

As soon as they are born, we see more personality differences.   Some are “good” babies who sleep a lot and are content when they are awake.  Others have us walking a path in the living room night after night.   As they get a little older, we see differences in their tempers.   My sixth baby threw her first full-blown temper tantrum at only 2 months of age.  I didn’t know what to do with a tantrum in an infant that young!  However, I think number seven was almost a year old before he really threw a temper tantrum.  Then some exhibit the “terrible twos” way before they turn two, and others have more of what I have called the “terrific twos”.  Of course, the older they get, the more and more we see changes in their personalities.

When I only had 3 or 4 children, I used to say that I had 3 or 4 opposites.  Now that I am expecting number 8, I’m not sure that I can continue to say that they are all opposites, but they are still very different from each other.  Of course, now and then I see similarities, but only in a few areas.  Each child is still very much his own person.

I believe that these differences can only be evidence of the hand of a Creator.  There is no way that there could be so much individuality by random chance!  But even more, it is evidence that we were created by a loving God.  Only a loving God would care so much about us that He would make us each unique. There is no one else just like me, and there is no one else just like you.  God took the time to form each of us to reflect a small part of His own character, but in a different way than anyone else!  And to think that not only did He make me different from anyone else, but He also had a plan for my life before He ever began to form me in the womb is just mind boggling.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 3rd, 2009 at 6:31 pm and is filed under Children, The Christian Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.