With an IQ higher than Albert Einstein, eight-year-old Jacob Barnett started attending Indiana University. He is studying advanced astrophysics and working on expanding the theory of relativity.
Jacob isn’t the only youngster to show off his genius. At 13, Sufiah Yusof from Malaysia was accepted at Oxford in mathematics. Kathleen Holtz started attending California State University when she was ten. At 15 she began law school and became the youngest lawyer in the US by age 18.
By age two, William Sidis had taught himself to read. Within a couple of years he was fluent in eight languages. He wrote four original works of his own by the age of seven.
Childhood prodigies or geniuses make for fascinating stories. It’s tempting to look at certain individuals and covet their abilities. We all wonder what it would be like to have such innate talent.
It’s dangerous to compare ourselves with someone else’s intellect, beauty, musical ability, athletic aptitude, or giftedness. God has created each of us differently. No one has your DNA, which means the people in crime labs can find you if you do something wrong. No one smells like you, which means hound dogs can follow your scent. No one has your voice, which means a computer can recognise your speech out of 7 billion others. We are all uniquely made and gifted.
God isn’t asking you to be as smart as a child prodigy. Nor is he measuring your worth by how gifted other people are. He just wants you to be a good steward of who you are – to use whatever he has given you to glorify him. Just be you.
“The Spirit of God has made me;
the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” (Job 33:4)
