Jesus or Joshua

I've always loved children, especially young ones. But of all of the wonderful, beautiful children I have known, there was a time when none was as special as my firstborn son, Joshua.  I don’t mean to imply that he is more wonderful than other children, but on the day he was born, for me there were no other children.  That little toothless, chinless, hairless, wrinkled baby boy did something to my heart that no child before him had ever done.

I was captivated by him.  Of course, that fade a little during the sleepless nights that followed, but even today I am still captivated.  Since the day of his birth, other people’s children have taken a different role in my mind.  They just aren't as dear to me as children once were.

When my second son, Andrew, came along, I felt the same thing.  I don’t think these feelings are something I alone feel.  I believe that most parents feel that way about their own children, and so I wonder how Elizabeth felt on the day Mary visited her.

  That night in her own bed did she struggle with the fact that the child in her own womb – a special child, promised by God, pronounced by the angel Gabriel himself – this very special child was not as special as the child that Mary carried.  Could it be that Elizabeth realized someone else’s baby was more important than her own.  I wonder, what would I have done?  How would I have responded? 

Jesus or Joshua, which one would I have chosen? 

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