they named him "given by God"

I’m amazed at how your personality has developed. I’m amazed at your deep understanding of difficult concepts. I’m amazed at your solid beliefs. I’m humbled at your genuine sense of compassion. I’m encouraged to witness you struggle with normal pre-teen emotions and conflicts and come to the end of the day with your “stuff” intact. Teetering on the brink of attitude, you reach inside, find the truth and claim it as your choice of the stuff of which you will continue to be made. You are truly a gift.
Last night as Mom and I mused at your turning twelve, Mom said, “remember that tiny baby that you used to roll up in the blanket and put him in your lap and lean on him while you rocked him?” Sounds like a “Mom” thing to say, doesn’t it? She asked if I thought you remembered that. After Mom went to bed, I started thinking about some comments I heard about teaching and speaking yesterday. I was made to think again about the notion that in order to be judged successful, the listener must be able to verbalize back to you what you had just said. My thoughts are of course that this does not indicate internalization, assimilation, or any kind of concept understanding or changed behavior. I’ve discussed this issue on this blog recently. Then I went out and read some Willard. Lo and behold, he’s talking about the same thing. How Jesus’ teaching caused learning that could only be assessed by watching the lives of those who heard it. This is much greater than information dump. I’ve said before that teaching can change someone’s life regardless of whether they can verbalize it or regurgitate the information that has changed them. I thought about Mom’s question again and how my answer illustrates this belief.
I answered, of course you don’t remember – you are only months old. But you were shaped by it. Only minutes before our conversation, you got ready for bed and then came back downstairs and climbed up in my lap and just sat there with your head on my chest like you did last week when we read the “blesseds” from Matthew. This lap time before retiring is a need that you don’t even know where it came from. But I do. I taught you this without even realizing I was teaching you anything. I calmed your screaming six-month-old fears and frustrations in this very same way. Now all these years later, we still find peace and comfort in the lap moments. Please don’t ever stop this. In no time, you’ll probably be overwhelming to my lap, but sit down beside me. My chest will still accommodate your head. Things will change quickly now. Let this stay the same. I’m man enough to feel comfortable with this. I pray that I can teach you to be man enough to be comfortable as well. Someday, when I’m gone, I hope you’ve been made to know that there’s still a Daddy on whose chest you can lay your head.