Dads

  An exchange that took place in our house last night around midnight: 
Rachel: What was wrong with him? 
Me: He was awake.

  Lately, Rachel and I have been talking about how much Caleb loves me.  It's amazing--every time I walk into a room, he smiles from ear to ear and begins thrashing back and forth, kicking his legs wildly.  (We interpret that as happiness.  It may well be the exact same thing an antelope does every time it sees a lion and begins to run for its life, only less graceful.  I don't know.  Don't ruin this for me.)  It's hard to be upset when you see such a sight.  Caleb's a cute baby anyway, but when he's smiling like that, every problem in the world seems to fade away.  I truly believe that his mission on this earth is to bring joy to others.  Well, that and to power the world through leg energy.  If only we could figure out how to harness that, we could disconnect our house from the grid.  Even when he sleeps, those legs are still going.  But I digress...

  Since Rachel grew up without any brothers, I was explaining to her how boys think their dad is the coolest person ever for the first ten years of their lives.  I have every intention of living this up--it's so much fun to be a source of joy for Caleb.  I want to be there for all the big events of his life, so that he knows that I support him and to give him a positive role model.  Later on, when he hits his early teenage years, he'll discover that I don't know anything, and he'll probably remind me of this quite often.  I'm not looking forward to that as much--so I just want to enjoy this time of his youth, when merely walking into a room can fill his soul with such joy that it overflows.

  Dads have an amazing responsibility to their kids, to support and love them as well as model what faithful living looks like.  I'm sure I'll fail at many points along the way--but I hope to succeed enough to exceed his expectations of what a dad should be, and in all these things point to the love of God, his Father in heaven.  It's a humbling, daunting task, but I'm excited about the opportunity to fill this role.  Each smile serves as encouragement for me to continue to show my love to him, that he may grow up and think the world is a good place, filled with people who need to be shown love, that his voice may add to the heavenly chorus the church sings when we serve and love one another.