Before working in the 2’s and 3’s classrooms at Gateway, I find I can't quite remember what I thought of toddlers. I most likely thought they were very similar to babies: bioorganic lumps of nothing that could barely walk, drooled and screamed, and wore their bathroom.

Even so, I haven’t been working at Gateway for too long (perhaps around 8ish months?), so I'm not sure how valid my thinking is yet, but toddlers are not like babies. Sure, most of the two year olds do still drool significantly, wear a diaper, and, their first few times in a classroom, scream for mama.

But 2 and 3 year olds alike share a beautiful curiosity that I find I can't quite put into words the way it ought to be worded. All the time, my toddlers ask me: “What is this?” and “What is that?”, “How?”, “Where?”, “When?” and it is so beautiful.

They’re small human beings, not learning their place in the world, like I am. For the time being, they are learning the world itself. What it is, what it does, where it goes, why it goes there, when it goes back, everything and anything.

I am, essentially, teaching them to be human. It doesn’t make me nervous, but honored. It is so beautiful that God has put teaching little humans how to be human in my heart, and I have an amazing opportunity to do it right at my own church.