Introducing Seth Hickey

Adam... fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.

Genesis 5:4 (NASB)

Everyone is familiar with the Biblical account of brothers Cain and Abel. Less people are familiar with Adam and Eve's other son, Seth. Which is interesting, because he is the son whom God carried out his protoevangelium promise through.

Being Adam, I had decided long ago—long before I had even met my wife—that I wanted a son named Seth. And I would hopefully be able to convince him (& his God-fearing future wife) to name their son Enosh, and train him up to name his son Kenan, and he... Well, you get the picture. So then all I needed was a wife to somehow slot into that plan.

At least, that's the way that wife tells the story.

Seth is our second child, first-born son, and one half of our "Boanerges".

Before he was born we had been told from an ultrasound expert that we were expecting a girl, and so had settled on the Biblical name Anna (This was 2012, a year before that House of Mouse movie made the name Anna unbearable). Much to our surprise and delight, Anna was not a girl, and thus Seth joined our ranks.

Everything we were ever going to need to know about Seth, summed up in one look.

Seth Ewan Tiberius Hickey, or S.E.T.H. for short (Tiberius isn't legally a part of his name, we just threw that in later for the acronym) is our high-functioning kid, and exhibits all the best qualities as such. If he learns a new fact, or word, or statistic, or movie quote, or... just about anything... you can be sure it will make its way into every conversation for the next six months.

Currently at 10-years old (as of one week ago), and about to start Year 4, Seth is just about the most intelligent person I've ever known. Just as an example, he had taught himself to read by 4. Emphasis on the "taught himself". We were trying to teach his 5-year old sister to read at the time, and whether he overhead lessons or something we have no idea. But all of a sudden, he was reading our subtitles on movies. Since then he has gone on to become the brains of the family (but fortunately for us, the kid has no common sense, or else he would be dangerous!). Needless to say, he's the only one in our family to have broken a bone.

Seth's favourite subjects are history (which is news to me...?), Spanish, maths and science. He has a keen interest in robotics and computer coding, and jokes (please, Lord) about how one day he is going to build a robot army and take over the world. If you ask him what he wants to be when he grows up, he will tell you he wants to work for 'The Institute' (as in, the one from Fallout).

Seth demonstrating a hydraulic Plusser hand he built by himself.

The end is nigh...

Seth is a deeply inquisitive kid, especially when it comes to the world around him. Religion, science, philosophy and stage magic blur some confusing lines at times, as he tries to find his way around his own thoughts, but once he has found the words he is after, he has a grasp on so many concepts that even adults struggle with, while taking the idea of a kid's 'deep theological questions' to new heights. For example, I've heard many kids ask about what death might be like, or if pets will be in Heaven. I've only ever heard Seth ask questions like, "If there's no crying in Heaven, will our bodies have nerves?"

Seth is unsure what his favourite book of the Bible is, but can tell you unequivocally that his least favourite is Judges. The constant cycle of the Israelites turning away, needing to be saved, and never learning their lesson drives him crazy.

He may be older, but the goofy faces are still a staple.

When he has free time, Seth would much rather play videogames than team sports, and some of his favourites are Minecraft, Spelunky (pretty much any game that involves digging holes and blowing stuff up) and a host of resource management and strategy games.

Oh, and he enjoys practicing his latest Sith moves with his Darth Maul lightsaber.