When our grandson was about ten months old, Jack and I were baby sitting with him for a few hours in an afternoon. He was a happy baby and we stayed in his room as he would creep around and pull himself up by a chair. Once or twice I noticed that he let go of the chair and for a second, stood on his own, then plopped back down to the floor. On one of those occasions he actually moved a foot as if taking a step away from the chair. After that, Isaac seemed to be possessed of a determination to walk. We watched him closely as he tried over and over again to stand and move forward. It was a phenomenon to me that he was so intensely focused on the movements of his body in order to stand and walk. Only a few days before this, Isaac was cruising the furniture, apparently without a care or a thought of walking on his own.

As I watched him I wondered what had triggered the intensity of his focus. Nothing we did or said diverted him from his efforts. He paid no attention to us at all. I felt that I was watching something as primitive as creation itself. The baby wasn’t imitating grown ups, but was clearly responding to an inbred urge to walk. He wasn’t laughing, but concentrating while we silently watched a crucial developmental event in his life.

We were awed. This was a spontaneous, unexpected event for us, and in that little boy I watched the spirit and the flesh working together to produce healthy and necessary growth. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people (unbelievers) are without excuse. (Romans 1:20)

The phenomena of nature give us a glimpse of the limitless variety in the created world. Witnessing some of these things gives us awareness of the power and creativity of our God: The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out to all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. (Psalm 19: 1-4) To witness the struggle of an infant to come into his own and walk is inspiring. Thousands of years ago people wrote the words that would capture their awe and direct it to its source in God. Today our awe is no less than theirs, and we have their words in our Bible. Today Isaac plays baseball.

Love in Him,

Prue