My Little Samson

I know of one little boy named Samson. I can completely understand why this is not a common name among Christians. After all, no one really wants their son to grow up and become a liar, awful tempered, vengeful playboy who sleeps with every available woman possible. And yet does not Samson give us hope? God chose him from the womb…and he gets an honorable mention in Hebrews 11 among the other greats of the Old Testament. Proof that God can use anyone.

Still, I don’t think I will go out and name my next son Samson. Maybe because I don’t need to. I think I’m living with one.

Like his sister, Ethan is small in size. At 14 months, he’s plateaued at wearing 9-month clothes. Most people are surprised to see him walking about quite confidently, for he’s smaller than any other 1-year old he’s around. Yet, he’s quite stocky and solid in build. His hands foretell at least a decent size full grown. And his strength astounds me.

For his birthday, his Sturm grandparents gave him a gate to block the stairway (and, so, save him from an early death in some vain attempt at mounting the steps headlong). Because we have an odd staircase, we ended up with a fence that wraps around the stairs and in front of most of my bookcase. (A surprise blessing since he had just started pulling books off the shelf several times a day.) This fence is heavy but easy to pivot and maneuver, so blocking various locations when I don’t want him underfoot. For now. Because whenever I do this, he comes up to the fence and almost pushes it right out of the way. Like Samson trying to get away from the Philistines. Wall? What wall? I’ll just take the whole city gate!

Or today when I went to get him up from his nap. At naptimes, he sleeps in our finished basement in the pack-and-play (instead of in the room with Emry where his crib is). He’s quite safe – can’t possibly climb out of it with the mesh sides that rise up to his chin. And if you’ve ever tried to take one of those apart, you know that a PhD and Samson-like strength are basic requirements. But apparently he can shake it enough to shift it. For today he had shifted it nearly perpendicular to it’s usual location. Before I know it, he’ll have somehow shifted it across the room!