Deep Thoughts on Nathan Barton

I remember when Nathan was born, of course.  His was the easiest birth and we were so thrilled to meet him.  He was short and stocky (that didn’t last long) and looked like a little football player.  Now he is more like a gymnast.  I remember introducing him to Sammy (who immediately dubbed him Nay-Nay) and just enjoying his newborn calmness while Sammy ran circles and played games and was chaos personified.  With the wonderful vision of hindsight, we now realize Sammy was the least active toddler we’ve had, although he was a normal active little boy.  Nathan easily topped him by running, climbing and getting into trouble everywhere.  Even now, Nathan keeps up physically with his big brother.  Both learned to ride bikes without training wheels at the same time.  As Nathan gets older, having turned five last month, we realize that his high energy level accompanies a very sensitive heart.  He is friends with just about everybody -  girl, boy, older children and younger children and is very outgoing with adults.  He takes good care of his baby brother Isaac and was very disappointed not to be able to visit his friend’s newborn brother at the hospital here.  Nathan is also our deep thinker.  I wish I remembered to write down all that he says.  He is very concerned about heaven and not sure he wants to live in the clouds.  He asked me one night if I would ever get rid of him.  I assured him we would never do that, but that one day he would be eager to move out and go to college.  Later that week, with Paul away working in another part of Ecuador, Nathan asked him on the phone, “Daddy, are you in college?”  One night a couple weeks ago he asked me, “Mommy, are we God’s toys?”  Sometimes we can reconstruct where his thoughts come from, but this time I was baffled.   All I could say was that we are God’s precious children, not His toys.  What a delight and awesome responsibility it is to have this precious little heart under our care for a few years.  Happy birthday, our sweet Nathan!