A reading through the bible demonstrates that there are many different kinds of families. There are families that have been reconfigured, families made up of tow parents, one parent, and more. There are large families and small families. A career in the ministry reinforced that observation with experiences of lots of different kinds of families. I’ve met people who live alone and who have happy and fulfilled lives. I’ve met families that have experienced tragedies that are strong and provide wonderful places for children to grow. I’ve met grandparents who are raising grandchildren.

Coming from a family with a lot of children, I once held a bias for large families. I can remember thinking that only children were unfortunate. My life’s experience has taught me, however, that small families are as precious and wonderful as large families. One of the best teachers was being the father of two children. From the moment our first was born I have always felt grateful for our children. Simply put, I am fortunate indeed when it comes to children. I love being a father. I am delighted with our children. Although I know that there are many different sizes and shapes of families, it seems to me that two was exactly the right number of children for us. Then there was the year when we had an exchange student living with us - for that year, three was just the right number and since that time, having Masami in our lives is a special bonus for our family.

Once, quite a few years ago, I made the comment to our children that I thought 5 was a good number for grandchildren. I was joking at the time, but now, with four grandchildren and another on the way it seems like that was a pretty good count. I know that we can’t predict what the future holds, but at the moment, five seems like just the right number in the grandchild department.

The spacing of our grandchildren seems just right to me as well. Until a birthday which is coming up soon, and a birth that should occur around the same time, they are 10, 7, 4 and 2. That gives me four distinct ages and four distinct flavors of humor.

The two year old still gets the giggles from playing hide and seek. And he loves tickling. He will come up to the computer and pretend that he is tickling us over the Internet. It always makes me smile and laugh. He is an excellent talker and has a big vocabulary and I sometimes get the giggles from his choice of words, but he doesn’t really understand the concept of a joke yet. He takes things literally.

The four year old understands that people laugh at jokes, but doesn’t quite get what makes humor tick. She’ll offer a completely nonsensical answer to a “knock knock” joke and laugh even though I can’t see the humor in what she said at all. She’ll try a variation on “Why did the chicken cross the road, and think it is very funny, but I can’t find the humor in it. Still, I love to hear her laugh and I’m entertained by her attempts at humor.

The seven year old knows a fair collection of jokes and gets the punch lines right as well. Almost all of her jokes are ones I’ve heard before, but I repeat my jokes as well, so I’ve little to complain about.

The ten year old has a sophisticated sense of humor. Here is one of his jokes: “There was a duck that was just about to cross the road, when all of a sudden a chicken ran up and said, ‘Don’t do it man. They’ll never stop questioning your motivation.’” He is also just beginning to understand sarcasm. I’m looking forward to exchanging jokes with him in the years to come as he delights me with his humor and his capacity to understand the world around him.

Soon each of them will move on to a new developmental stage and a new form of humor. And the wonderful thing is that we have yet another grandchild to start with baby giggles and grow along a similar, but entirely different path from his or her siblings and cousin.

We don’t yet know the gender of this new child and that makes the anticipation all the more fun from my point of view. When our first grandchild was on the way, I didn’t have any preference about gender. I knew I’d be delighted however the child emerged. After he was born, I still had no preference, but I did have a sense that it would be good for our son to have a daughter. At least I was delighted with the experience of being the father of a daughter and I hoped that our son could discover a similar delight. Now we have two boys and two girls and it seems that whatever is born will be perfect for our family. I know that gender identity is not fixed and that there can be many more surprises as our grandchildren grow and develop, but I enjoy surprises and am looking forward to the newness our grandchildren bring to our family.

I’ve always been fascinated by children and am amazed and delighted at the facility with which they master complex skills. I am also thrilled at their delight in experimenting with new skills and testing their effects on others. I’m open to any of my grandchildren testing out a new joke on me - even if I’ve heard the joke a hundred times before. Each joke is an amazing demonstration of a developing mind that can put together a lifetime of experiences even if that life is short. That same mind can analyze social situations and develop a sense of timing and delivery. The humor of grandchildren is better than the stage act of any stand up comedian.

As a bonus, I keep getting new material from our grandchildren. You can count on me telling the duck crossing the road joke over and over again. Who knows, I might even have the opportunity to tell it to one of our grandchildren some day.