I’ve been hanging out with a little man this month named Yessel.
Yessel is 6 years old, although he sometimes tells me he is 4 or 5 (He also tells me he has 10 siblings, but I think he has 5. Not so good with numbers yet.). He has 2 other siblings at CICRIN and the others are on a waiting list to get in. His parents can’t afford to care for his large family, which is why CICRIN has care of them.
Yessel blesses me. He has a smile that lights up his entire face and an eagerness that only little children can posses. He runs (or struts, depending on his mood) by me every day on the way to breakfast and always stops to turn around and hug me. In the afternoons when I’m done with the morning construction/garden/kitchen work, I see him diligently sweeping the grounds with a broom that’s twice as tall as him.
Sometimes we sit next to each other during meal times. I remember being poked furiously by him the first time I sat down with my food and being told I needed to pray first, primero necessita orar. Man, can this kid pray, and I’m not talking about a 5-second Lord’s Prayer. When Yessel prays, his head goes straight into the crook of his arm on the table or he covers his face with his hands and he puts his entire heart into talking with his Daddy. Sometimes I ask Yessel to pray for both of us and he always agrees without hesitation and launches straight into it.
I love going to church with Yessel. As the entire congregation stands in this humid one-room building sweating and sticking to everything, Yessel is clapping his hands, closing his eyes, or lifting his arms to worship Jesus.
Last Sunday, we sat next to each other in the white plastic lawn chairs that the church uses and I remember glancing over at Yessel and being struck by the ferocity and intensity that he worships the Lord with. His little face was upturned to me, his eyes were squeezed shut, and his arms were waving back and forth. A smile danced across his face in between his lisping jumble of Spanish worship songs.
I’m starting to get why Jesus calls us children of God, why He says “whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it” (Mark 10:15). Children are simple in their trust of and affection for the Lord. To them, the truth is the truth and that’s all there is to it. I’m praying to be more like Yessel, more like the other kids at CICRIN, more like the children I’ve met in Guatemala and Honduras. All of them are separated from their parents, whether by financial circumstance or death, yet they all greet each day with an amount of joy that doesn’t make sense. I want to be like Yessel.
Meet Yessel from C Young on Vimeo.
