Can You Change Your Own Diaper?

Well, that little boy of ours just continues to amaze me. The latest thing happened last Saturday (the day he turned 18 months old) when we were all just chillin’ at home. Daphne had been sick that day so she had some kleenexes sitting on the arm of the loveseat. Jadon had been playing in the living room and was walking around tugging at his diaper. He got it about halfway off, so Daphne went ahead and helped him take it the rest of the way off.

So our naked little boy walks over to the loveseat, climbs up and grabs a kleenex and starts wiping himself off. I’m pretty impressed that he knows he is supposed to wipe himself off when he gets a dirty diaper off. Then Daphne brings a new diaper and the powder over so we can finish the job. Well, I guess Jadon has either seen us do it enough or is just feeling pretty independent or something because he grabs the diaper, opens it up and sits down in it. At this point Daphne and I are looking at each other pretty impressed, but at the same time we are trying not to crack up.

So then, I whispered to Daphne to open up the powder, thinking that it would be hilarious if Jadon would powder himself too, but not really expecting him to. Next thing we know, he grabs the powder and dumps some right where it was supposed to go! At that point, we had both lost it, we were busting up laughing, and clapping for him at the same time.

We were both pretty impressed, but I guess it is about that time – I mean, if you were to watch someone do something several times a day for 18 months, don’t you think you should catch on pretty soon? If you ask me, I think he should have started doing this several months ago.

Did Humans Always Have Skin?

Just something I have been thinking about….

Did Adam and Eve have skin before the fall? I’m not so sure. I was listening to a sermon a while back and the person speaking referenced Genesis 3:21 (“The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.”) While I don’t even remember now what the sermon was about, I know it had nothing to do with skinless humans, but it somehow got me thinking about whether or not humans have always had skin.

Up until then I had never noticed the separation between garments of skin and clothed them. I think that most of us assume that the skin the garments were made from was animal skin, but maybe we are inferring too much. I don’t see anywhere in the text where it says that God made garments from animal skin for them to wear. Rather, it says that He made garments of skin for them AND clothed them. Could the garments of skin and the clothing be two separate things? Is it possible that the skin that God made was given to Adam and Eve to wear over their naked, exposed flesh? And then he also gave them clothes to wear?

I then began to wonder if the text had ever made reference to Adam/Eve’s skin prior to this verse. While there are several references to bones and flesh, there is not one mention of skin. I don’t know about you, but when I hear flesh, I always picture the red “fleshy” stuff under the skin. For instance, when someone has an open wound it is often said that you can see their flesh. What’s the big deal about that if the flesh is the skin?

Maybe once Adam and Eve ate the fruit and became aware of the state of their bodies, it was too disgusting to look at. Maybe God made skin to cover up the exposed flesh and bones so that it would be easier to look at. Can you imagine what it would be like if will were still without skin? So maybe it was very intentional that skin was mentioned in this verse for the first time along with clothes. I wonder if we haven’t just been assuming too much this whole time and reading over this verse without giving it a second thought. Something to think about anyway…

I Equal 3

Here is something I discovered one day when I was very, very bored. Up until that point my favorite number had always been 1 (Ozzie Smith’s number), but I am thinking that I have no choice but to change it to 3. Here’s why:

When combined in many different ways, the numbers in my birthdate can be reduced down to the number 3.

3 x 27 = 81,

3 + 2 + 7 = 12

3 + 2 + 7 + 8 + 1 = 21,

3 x 2 x 7 x 8 x 1 = 336,

3 x 2 x 7 x 1 x 9 x 8 x 1 = 3024

Also, if you add the individual numbers of each of those answers together,
you get a number that can be reduced down to 3.

8 + 1 = 9

1 + 2 = 3

2 + 1 = 3

3 + 3 + 6 = 12 (1 + 2 = 3)

3 + 0 + 2 + 4 = 9

The same thing happens if I add together the number values of each letter in my name.
[A=1, B=2, etc.]

Adding the number value of each letter in my full name
[Timothy James Eugene Payne] equals: 276.

When the values of the letters in each name are multiplied together and then the value of each name are added together, it comes to a total of: 140,697,600.

When the values of every letter are multiplied all the way through my entire name it comes to a grand total of: 12,489,569,820,000,000,000,000

2 + 7 + 6 = 15 [1 + 5 = 6]

1 + 4 + 0 + 6 + 9 + 7 + 6 + 0 + 0 = 33 [3 + 3 = 6]

1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 9 + 5 + 6 + 9 + 8 + 2 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 54 [5 + 4 = 9]

Wow.