The Tall and the Short of It

Creation Every Day

The average female reaches full height when she’s around 15 years old. At 4'10", I don’t remember when I stopped gaining inches. As I write, my feet are resting on a wooden platform under my desk so I can touch the floor.

On the other side of the office sits my vertical antithesis, the content manager for AiG attractions, Tim Chaffey. Towering at 6'8", Tim modeled as a giant for the preflood dioramas at the Ark Encounter.

Our differences couldn’t be more striking. Tim ducks at doorways. I stand on stepstools to reach high shelves. Tim scrounges for space to tuck his legs on airplanes. I barely meet the required height for some roller coasters and waterslides.

Tim knows which questions to expect: “Did you play basketball?” “How tall was your mom?” Meanwhile, I can always count on children smugly measuring their ongoing growth back-to-back with me.

Scientists don’t know all the reasons people wind up drastically short or tall. But so far, they’ve pinpointed more than 12,000 DNA variants associated with height.

Every head duck and tiptoe testifies to the genetic diversity the Creator placed in Adam and Eve. These feet and inches, with their perks and frustrations, display something of the glory of God in Tim and me—the tall and the short of it.