T is for TWINS

Doris and Daphne, Roy and Eric, Malcolm and Martin, Noel and Rodney, Jill and Joy three had one thing in common. First, they were pupils at the school where I was teaching, secondly, each pair were siblings and thirdly and most importantly, they were all identical twins. What made it even more strange was that they were all at school at the same time, during my teaching stretch there. They came back into my mind yesterday when a read in the papers about identical twins who had just celebrated their hundredth birthday and identical triplets who had reached the milestone of eighty years. I wondered what it must be like to be identical to someone else and it was interesting to read that the triplets still sometimes wear each other's clothes, even long after their three score and ten years have elapsed. And while they reckoned that they would have enough puff to blow out two hundred and forty candles on their cake, I guess it would have been a bit of a fire hazard on the table! One of them, on a recent holiday had spent most of the fortnight trying to convince an old friend that he wasn't one of his two other brothers and I know all about that because for years it was just about impossible to tell some of our pupils apart so we resorted to calling one of the pairs above, who were more identical than all the others, if you can imagine that, simply as 'twin'. That way you never got it wrong and that was the first lesson I learned about twins, that, despite having a replica of themselves, they really want to be their own person.

Many times when I called to Malcolm to answer a question in class, his first response was always to say 'Martin' and vice-versa with the brother so after a while I just sort of pointed in his general direction and I think he probably knew I was hedging, by the slight grin on his face. What made it more difficult of course was that they were both in the same class all the way through school while some of the others had been in different classes because of the subjects they chose or sometimes because one twin was more academically minded than the other. Which brought me to my second lesson about twins in that while they might look identical on the outside they both possess different abilities on the inside.

John and Jayne were also twins in the school, though, as you will have already worked out, were not identical - his hair was much more curly! They also weren't in the same class but like all the other sets, had a closeness that you don't get between other brothers and sisters. They always looked out for each other and had a genuine concern for their twin's well being. And that was the third lesson I learned about twins, identical or otherwise, that they seemed to feel the pain of the other partner and was always genuinely interested in them.

It was therefore not an easy task trying to teach such groups. After all, they dressed the same, though this is to be expected when they are wearing school uniform, they often played tricks on others by impersonating their twin and also they were expected to be equally good at all the things in which their double excelled.

All of them are well into adulthood now and most are married and I thought I'd left the whole twins thing far behind. But over the years I have managed to acquire twin cousins and more recently we have enrolled as couple of sets of the non-identical variety in school. IN the past year also, a second twin has joined his brother at our church fellowship and both of them admit to some interesting conversations with people whom they don't know but clearly think they do.

As Christians, we are in a sense like twins or triplets in being all the same to God. Yes, he has given us individual personalities, different shapes, sizes and looks, even different languages and colours but essentially we are identical in that all who receive His salvation, do so in the same way by repentance and faith and a very generous portion of His grace. But like twins, He still knows that we all have different abilities, need to be our own person but He expects us to care for each other, to be concerned for the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ and to love them with an unconditional love. Paul, in his letter to the church at Rome, reminds them 'Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.'

We have no twins in our immediate family but we all have the same heavenly Father and though we were all born again at different times, we possess the same salvation and the same Holy Spirit living within. I hope that though others see our physical differences they also observe our spiritual sameness for that's what God sees in everyone who believes. And that's doubly reassuring.