As many of you already know by now, I became a proud father for the first time to Caleb Timothy Aggen nearly a month ago on Monday, August 20. Everybody is doing well, albeit struggling with some sleepless nights with a newborn!
It was on one of those nights, when I was sitting in our rocking chair in Caleb’s nursery room, feeding him a bottle in the hopes that he would be sated and fall into a nice, deep sleep, that I had a new insight. As he suckled on the bottle, it suddenly occurred to me that I was once this small. As I marveled over Caleb’s diminutive nature, I realized that just over thirty years ago, my parents, too, sat in a chair, bleary-eyed and fed me bottles of milk.
Then my mind went even farther back. My parents, too, were as small as Caleb and THEIR parents also sat in a chair in the middle of the night, feeding a hungry baby! And on and on it went back through the ages and centuries of time.
As my mind went on a trip back in time, I also remarked that feeding is just one of the many things that parents have to do for their children. There’s the clothing, the changing of soiled diapers, the burping, the bathing, the combing, the clipping of nails, and everything else one needs to do to take care of an infant that is completely at the mercy of the world, absolutely unable to take care of itself even in the smallest, simplest way.
ALL of us were once infants. This is a simple fact that eludes many adults. We’ve become so used to our own independence and our own abilities to do anything that we need to do, including taking care of ourselves on our own. But the truth is once upon a time, we were born and someone loved us enough to take care of us. Someone was gracious enough to ensure our survival and met our simplest needs of food and clothing. We could not have grown up on our own.
Do parents raise their children always the right, loving and graceful way? No. The matter of the fact is, there are many children who were raised in unhealthy homes or orphanages without parents. However, someone, somewhere fed you and I and took care of us to the best of their ability, and for that reason we’re all here now, on our own.
As my mind worked all of this out, I grew to appreciate my parents and their parents and THEIR parents’ parents and so on. I also gazed heavenward and grew to appreciate my Heavenly Father who had orchestrated all of this. In His wisdom, he had enabled all of us to literally be the products of love and grace, the very same ingredients that He leavened the world with and used to bring us to Him through the birth, the death and the resurrection of His Son.
It is because of my ancestors and because of Jesus that I get to bestow love and grace on this fresh, new child. I get to teach this child to stand on its two feet and go out into the world on his own, so that he, too, may spread love and grace in it.
– Matt
bornchildchildrengenerationgraceloveparentparenthood
Born & Raised in Grace & Love
September 13, 2012
Calvary
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Matt
As many of you already know by now, I became a proud father for the first time to Caleb Timothy Aggen nearly a month ago on Monday, August 20. Everybody is doing well, albeit struggling with some sleepless nights with a newborn!
It was on one of those nights, when I was sitting in our rocking chair in Caleb’s nursery room, feeding him a bottle in the hopes that he would be sated and fall into a nice, deep sleep, that I had a new insight. As he suckled on the bottle, it suddenly occurred to me that I was once this small. As I marveled over Caleb’s diminutive nature, I realized that just over thirty years ago, my parents, too, sat in a chair, bleary-eyed and fed me bottles of milk.
Then my mind went even farther back. My parents, too, were as small as Caleb and THEIR parents also sat in a chair in the middle of the night, feeding a hungry baby! And on and on it went back through the ages and centuries of time.
As my mind went on a trip back in time, I also remarked that feeding is just one of the many things that parents have to do for their children. There’s the clothing, the changing of soiled diapers, the burping, the bathing, the combing, the clipping of nails, and everything else one needs to do to take care of an infant that is completely at the mercy of the world, absolutely unable to take care of itself even in the smallest, simplest way.
ALL of us were once infants. This is a simple fact that eludes many adults. We’ve become so used to our own independence and our own abilities to do anything that we need to do, including taking care of ourselves on our own. But the truth is once upon a time, we were born and someone loved us enough to take care of us. Someone was gracious enough to ensure our survival and met our simplest needs of food and clothing. We could not have grown up on our own.
Do parents raise their children always the right, loving and graceful way? No. The matter of the fact is, there are many children who were raised in unhealthy homes or orphanages without parents. However, someone, somewhere fed you and I and took care of us to the best of their ability, and for that reason we’re all here now, on our own.
As my mind worked all of this out, I grew to appreciate my parents and their parents and THEIR parents’ parents and so on. I also gazed heavenward and grew to appreciate my Heavenly Father who had orchestrated all of this. In His wisdom, he had enabled all of us to literally be the products of love and grace, the very same ingredients that He leavened the world with and used to bring us to Him through the birth, the death and the resurrection of His Son.
It is because of my ancestors and because of Jesus that I get to bestow love and grace on this fresh, new child. I get to teach this child to stand on its two feet and go out into the world on his own, so that he, too, may spread love and grace in it.
– Matt
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