Firstborns

Well, I got to go to church this past Sunday. Alex was home with Ryan because he's recovering from a cold. So, I took James and we had a special time together. Our church just hired a new pastor who starts next week, so the temporary Irish pastor had his last sermon on Sunday. He was finishing up Nehemiah. And he was reading about the Levites who gave their first fruits, firstborns, first crops, first monies, etc. to the church. I know that to give the Lord our "firsts" is a common principle based on giving back to the Lord what he has given us because it belongs to him anyways. But I started thinking about firstborns and why would my firstborn be any more special than my 2nd or 3rd, etc? Is he medically or scientifically "better" than the following children? Is the DNA he receives better because it's the first? Then I started thinking about strawberries and sometimes the 2nd round of strawberries from the local farms taste better than the 1st round. So, maybe it's not all about the best but the sacrifice of giving the first back before we give ourselves anything. I know it's elementary, but having 2 children I think about things differently.

So, here's a picture of my firstborn. He figured out that those shoes make a pretty good noise on the floor. I didn't put him up to it, but I have been known to put pearls on my nephews...