Are you an otter, a lion, a beaver or a golden retriever? You may be familiar with various personality paradigms. We are always trying to find categories for people. While these descriptions may be helpful, they often fail to capture the complexity of human personalities. My friend Mike told us how to distinguish an extroverted engineer from an introverted engineer. The extrovert will look at your shoes while he talks. On the other hand the introvert looks only at his own shoes. We laugh because there is an echo of truth in this analogy.
Once again, we notice the distinctiveness of Jacob’s children. Remember they came from four different mothers. This almost certainly accounts for the uniqueness of his sons. Gad will endure an attack but fight back. Asher likes to cook. Poetic Naphtali appreciates beauty. Some translations say he speaks beautiful words.
My friend Mike loves to fish. We fished on Decker Lake near Austin one day and muddled through the fog to make it back to shore. God gave him and his wife a son, a fishing partner as Mike held high hopes. As his son Matt grew up, he really did not enjoy fishing. When Mike told me, I asked him, “So what will you do?” “I will learn about skateboards so I can enter his world,” he answered. Later, I saw a picture of him with his daughter catching a large fish. God gave him a fishing buddy, but it wasn’t his first son.
We are wonderfully made by a wonderful Maker. Safe to say, he knew what he was doing when he created us as we are. As we continue to walk in his ways, God will help us to discover who we are in the Kingdom of God. Created in the image of a perfect Father, we bless others because our Father has blessed us.
