He’s about eight years old, four feet tall, skinny as a
stick, and I call him the strong man. His current home is a
20x12ft hospital room that he shares with 7 other children. He can only have
visitors for 2 hours a day, and we haven’t seen him get any in the past week.
When you walk into the children’s ward, his room is the
first on the left. As I glanced into the room, I saw the little guy sitting on
the ground with a friend, watching the television. He looks everything like
what you imagine he might. He looks like every World Vision infomercial that
you have seen. At first glance I could see that this child was malnourished.
Despite his tiny arms and legs, his stomach was large and swollen. He looked up
at me with his sad, bloodshot eyes, not showing any emotion. I looked into
those eyes and I could see no hope. He had nothing to look forward to, no
dreams, and no child-like faith.
As I walked up and down the hallway, I glanced into his room
to see what he was doing. He was still sitting with his friend on the floor,
but now they were talking with each other… and flexing their muscles. This tiny
little guy, with arms half the size of my wrists, was flexing his biceps as
best as he could.
I smiled as I walked into the room and said Hey, look at you. You’re a strong man! His eyes brightened and
his lips curled into a smile as he bashfully shot his arms down. I encouraged
him and asked him to flex some more. He granted my request and quickly resumed
the flexing along with his friend, bashful smile still in place. I returned the
smile and said yes, you are the strong man!
Is it enough?
“Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the
bones.”
Proverbs 16:24
