It just "happened"......

I was reading Ann Voskamp's Advent book to the boys for our Bible time in the mornings before Christmas. We read about Samuel's search for a King. And all of a sudden, I had an epiphany. Want to know what it was? (If you don't, just close your screen now.)

Samuel and Jesse both believed that the oldest and strongest and biggest of the sons would be the obvious choice for the King of Israel. We all know the story, though, right? It wasn't the oldest or any of the others. It was David who was the youngest and the smallest whom God was calling.

I looked at our son, Jonathan David, and just started crying. Which, of course, did not make any sense to my boys who do NOT understand my tears more than half of the time I shed them! You see, our son is small for his age. He always has been. We went through a period of time where they did all kinds of tests on him because he did not appear to be growing. But they never found a medical explanation. Well, other than the fact that neither his mom or dad are very tall people!

We thought we got his middle name, David, from my Dad. And my dad is a pretty great guy to be named after! But today I just realized that God had a bigger plan. He knew all along that Jonathan would be small and that he would need someone small like shepherd boy David who kills a giant and who becomes King to look up to, to aspire to. God knew that Jonathan would struggle with his size and he would need to be reminded in BIG ways that small doesn't mean insignificant. That small doesn't mean less important.

Jonathan has gone through periods of time where his size has really bothered him. Kids made fun of him and treated him differently because he looked younger than they expected him to be.  He has grown to realize there are definite advantages to being small--you are easier for your uncles to throw  around than your taller cousins, you are a smaller target for games like dodge ball, and you can do gymnastics a little easier than someone with more body to move around.

David and Goliath has been his favorite Bible story since he started learning Bible stories. Coincidence? I doubt it.

Have I really never noticed this before? No, I have. But for some reason it hit me in a fresh, real way this morning. And I had the opportunity to speak into his life how great he could become, no matter his size.