Today Tom is 12 – Hapy Birthday mate!
How can 12 years go by so quickly?

It’s really weird to know I can remember minute details of that day 12 years ago in the hospital in Bristol, and yet I can forget things that happened only last month, week – or even earlier today!

AS just after 6 this evening I was able to say to Sarah that I knew exactly what we were both doing – Sarah was being tken off for a bath and I ws left in the delivery suite holding the 15 minute old Tom – I guess it must have been an important and speial moment. In fact, I even remember our first conversation on that day!

I remember the joy, the elation, the excitement which was all mixed with an awe, an amazement that we had created this fantastic little person as well as a good dose of fear and anxiety as to whether I was ready to be a dad, and a hope that I would not be a dad like mine!

I often wonder where that love for Tom came from. It’s clear it was there, but its also clear that it was there for Tom before he was born. I loved the child in the womb before I knew anything about him or her.

I wonder if that is something of the image of God within us. As God loves us unconditonally, is there is inbuilt love within humanity for their own? Is that a mark of the creator within us?

Another thought – I still know the excitement of that first love for Tom and when I think of it I think it must reflect in a a very minute way the love that God feels for each of his creations; and I guess he experiences some of those fears and anxieties for us as well.

Happy Birthday Tom!