I Want to be More Like These Children

"I want to be more like these children."

That's about all I could journal after walking through the squatters' village in Swaziland on September 24th. As we took a stroll away from the Children's Cup care point and down the dirt roads of the village, children began to come alongside us, grabbing our hands, climbing our hips, searching our faces.

I'm stopped in my tracks. Stopped in my tracks trying to write this, because I feel those tiny hands stroking my cheeks, those brilliant eyes searching my soul... Blahhh, how I can even try to put words to this...

Holding kids on each hip, several grabbing each hand, we walked. As we stopped for a few minutes to wait for a friend, one of the children looked up at me...and began to sing. Through broken English, I understood two words.

"Wonderful"...and "Jesus."

"Wonderful Jesus. Jesus, He is so wonderful. Wonderful Jesus."

I'm embraced by these children, with their bare feet and tattered clothes. We're walking the dirty, littered roads of their village, soon to be taken away by the government. Their homes beside us are nothing to be desired, they're hungry and they're left wanting...

...and these children are singing to me about the wonder of Jesus.

I'm looking on their poverty, and they're telling me how good God is.

They looked at me as if searching my soul - did I agree, did I know, too, how wonderful Jesus is? Playfully they began to sway my arms and one changed the tune to another, so familiar...

"Yes Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so..."

So we stood in the dirty street and held hands and we sang. In the middle of their hunger, poverty and loss, we sang about a Wonderful Jesus. We sang about how He loves us. These children hijacked all of my doubt, worry, fear and distrust and reminded me that circumstance does not prove God's favor and situations do not eliminate His love.

Jesus, I love You. I trust You. Make me more like these children. Make me more like You.