Theme and Variations

As I sit here this morning writing this post, Tom and I are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our third grandchild. Yay! We can hardly contain our excitement at the anticipation of meeting this little one and getting to know them. We are blessed to have two grandsons already, Ben who is turning six this month, and Flint who will be three in a few days. We don't know whether this little one will be a boy or a girl, but this we know for sure, whoever they are, we are already crazy in love with them.

I guess one of the most amazing things about having children, besides getting to meet them for the first time, is gradually getting to know them. Watching their little personalities emerge and develop is just the absolute greatest. One of my grandmothers used to say that you could have a whole houseful of children and no two would be alike. I believe that's true. As much as we ooh and aah over whose profile the baby has or whose eyes they've inherited, the thing I suppose we love the most is seeing a little bit of ourselves or other family members present in their mannerisms. We wonder if they'll have their daddy's sense of humor or their mother's love of books. We thrill with joy when they mimic the rhythm to a beat or display incredible hand-eye coordination for their age... and we think to ourselves, "That's my girl! or That's my boy... a chip off the old block!"

I suppose no one enjoys seeing this more than the God who created them. Before He ever formed our children in the womb, He gave careful thought and attention to adding in just the right amounts of this and that to make the perfect combination of who His kids would be, of what they would be like. He tailor made a combination of gifts, talents, and abilities that would serve well both the world and the Lord's kingdom. From conception God built into children the beautiful replication of some of their parents' genes, but God doesn't deal in carbon copies. He is instead a God of Theme and Variations. It doesn't matter whether you have one child or ten, whether they are yours by biology or by adoption, or whether you are simply that really cool aunt or uncle... kids pick up and absorb the little nuances that make you family, but they also add to the mix with their own unique signature.

When I was a music major in college, one of the forms of music we studied was Theme and Variations. In this particular type of setting a melody is introduced in it's purest form right up front. From there the composer would modify that melody throughout the piece by either adding ornamentation, changing the harmonies, or adapting different rhythms and so on. No matter what was done to modify the tune, some element of the original melody was almost always maintained. Thus, the theme could be recognized if you listened well enough.

I think God likes to work within the parameters of Theme and Variations. Take trees for example. There are conifers, broad-leaf, needle-leaf, deciduous, evergreen, fruit bearing, flower bearing, smooth bark, rough bark, giant varieties, dwarf varieties. They're all trees, but wow, the variation within the category of "trees" is incredible! It's the same with birds. You have song birds, predatory birds, water foul, land nesters, ostriches, turkeys, swans, wrens, penguins... again, what amazing variation! Throughout creation God introduces different themes, one for trees, one for birds... one for people. Then He goes about as only a master composer could do and begins adding ornamentation, changing rhythms, introducing new harmonies. Bits of the original remain, imbedded here and there, but each variation is unique and beautiful on its own.

To me, that's what having children is like. We might see little bits and pieces of ourselves, our gifts, our abilities present in our kiddos. We might beam a little brighter with pride as we see them accomplish some of the same things we have accomplished, but they aren't mini-me's. Though they retain glimpses, they are their own, beautiful, stand alone melodies. God has seen to that. He has a plan for each of us, so it wouldn't do to have mere copies.

Within the next few days another variation will emerge. The voicing of this melody will add to the orchestration already present in this family. The composition will only be richer and more captivating because of it. We look forward to finding those bits and pieces of the original theme present as well, but we look forward even more to appreciating this variation as much as the ones that have come before.