Zaccheus Was A Wee Little Man

Just as all the kids gathered to take a group picture at the end of kids' club, I saw Robert walk through the gate.

I saw his face fall when he realized it was over and he had missed the whole thing. 

My face fell, too, because I realized I had forgotten to remind him. 

Robert and his brother, Jacob, are the older brothers of baby Namwin Bonna Youor (God Knows Her Name), who have been living next door to us for a little while before returning home to their isolated village. I go over there every day to check on the baby and give her medicine, and I always try to talk to Robert and Jacob, too. They absolutely love to come to kids' club (it might even be the highlight of their week according to how they act), so I always try to invite them and remind them each Thursday to come.

But his week, I forgot. And Robert didn't show up until the very end. 

Feeling a little guilty and wanting to make it up to them by giving them some special attention, I hauled all the supplies over to their house next door to give them their own personal kids' club. 

We had studied the story of Zaccheus, and I had the story in French (complete with pictures) on my iPad. I handed it to Robert and asked, "Would you like to read the story from today?" 

His face beamed, and he took the iPad from my hand and sat down in a chair between his mother, who was feeding a bottle to God Knows Her Name, and his little brother Jacob. They both leaned in close with great interest, and I leaned back with a smile on my face to watch this new story unfold. 

After each digital page, Robert stopped to translate for his mother (who speaks only dagara) and brother (who is still too young to understand much French). When they heard the story in their own tongue, their heads would nod and bob along. 

When it got to the part about Zaccheus climbing up a tree, the mother started singing a little song. I couldn't understand exactly what she said, but if I were to read between the lines, it went a little like this:

Zaccheus was a wee little man 

And a wee little man was he

He climbed up in a sycamore tree 

For the Lord he wanted to see...

At the end of the story, the ebook finished with a page that described how the story comes from Luke 19. Robert jumped up from his seat, dug through his little bag, and pulled out a Gideon's Bible in French. "Can I read the story?" he asked me with a sparkle in his eye. 

"Of course!" 

He took a pen and marked a big star by the big 19 in his Bible, and then he read the whole story all over again. 

"I have another verse for you to look up," I said, and I helped him turn to 2 Corinthians 5:17. 

"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come." 

"Before meeting Jesus, Zaccheus was a theif and a sinner," I explained. "But after he met Jesus, his whole life changed." 

Robert was nodding along as he put another big star by 2 Corinthians 5:17 in his Bible. 

"It's the same thing with our lives. Before knowing Jesus, we were lost. After meeting him, we are saved and forgiven, and our whole lives change. That's what this verse says, too." 

I showed them how to do the craft by tracing their hands and forearms to make a tree. They used fingerpaints to put leaves on the tree and paint a little Zaccheus in the tree and a little Jesus at the base. 

By the time we were finished, it was getting dark, so I said goodnight and walked back to the house singing, Zaccheus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he...

For just a moment, I was even thankful that I forgot to invite Robert to kids' club because I got to spend one on one time with his family instead. And I praised God for the new life we have in Christ and the opportunities we have to stare that life with others like Robert, Jacob, his mother, and baby Namwin Bonna Youor.