I’m Not a Baby

Jeff Ellison was seven-and-a-half years old—almost eight—and he was strong. He could pick up a whole bag of chicken feed by himself. He could read books all by himself, too. He had climbed the big birch tree in the backyard all the way to the top.

His little brother, Tommy, was just a baby. He couldn’t even walk! Couldn’t hardly talk, either. All he did was cry! He cried about everything, especially in the middle of the night.

Tommy had to have a bottle, or he would spill his milk. Jeff drank out of a glass, carefully holding it just like Daddy did.

And Tommy didn’t even go to the bathroom. Oh, my! It was awful! He had to wear diapers. And he didn’t even seem to feel bad about it.

You couldn’t trust him at all, either. He crawled everywhere and put everything in his mouth. He had to be watched all the time. But he didn’t know better.

Sometimes Jeff would stand by Tommy’s playpen and show him the book that he was reading. He sure didn’t know anything: if you let him look at the book, he would try to tear out the pages!

Then Cousin Herb came to stay with the Ellisons for the summer. He was tall, almost as tall as Daddy. He could jump over the pasture fence just by putting one hand on the post. He could read the Bible in family devotions and knew how to say all the words. One day, when Jeff was showing Cousin Herb how he could lift a whole bag of chicken feed, Herb reached down and picked up Jeff and the chicken feed and put them in the back of the pickup truck!

Cousin Herb could do just about everything that Daddy could. They laughed together as they worked. My, they were strong!

Cousin Herb liked Jeff, too. When Jeff showed him how well he could read, Herb didn’t laugh, even when Jeff forgot the hardest words in the book. He didn’t even laugh when Jeff showed him how hard he could swing a hammer, and then missed the nail. When Jeff, Herb, and Daddy were all mixing concrete for fence posts, Jeff got so tired that he had to quit. Cousin Herb didn’t make fun of him, or say things like, “Wait till you grow up before you try a man’s work.” He just kept on working. But it bothered Jeff just the same.

After a bit he said, “Well, I did better than Tommy could, anyway. He’s just a baby.”

Cousin Herb looked at Jeff. The whole front of his shirt was wet with sweat. His face was shiny, too. Then he said, “Jeff, I used to be a baby, too.”

Jeff felt kind of strange all over, just like the time when he fell off the swing-set just as he had gone higher than he had ever gone before. He just stared at Cousin Herb.

Daddy glanced up from his work and looked straight at Jeff. “I was a baby, too,” he said. He looked at Cousin Herb and smiled. “And Jesus was a baby, at first.”

After a bit Daddy said, “When I was a baby, I enjoyed being one. But I’m glad I’m not a baby now—because this work wouldn’t get done!” And they all laughed together.