Out of the mouths of babes

Out of the Mouth of Babes

I have a pair of shoes that I used to wear. It seemed, every Sunday, to go to Church. Now this pair of shoes, as shoes go, has nothing special about them. It is just that after wearing a different pair of shoes every day of the week to go to college, this was the only remaining pair of shoes to be worn on Sunday. Without planning to, I find myself wearing them come Sunday.

Oprah is two-and-a-half years old, and as any parent knows, a two-and-a-half year old is a handful and do at times tax your patience to the hilt. But they are also the most loving and the most giving.

Coming back to shoes, Oprah seems to have been observing my shoe-wearing routine much more keenly than I thought possible for a child so young. I have discovered that she would go to my shoe rack and pull out my 'Sunday-shoes', then she will put them on and start humming some Christian song like 'Bwana Yesu ndiye kimbilio langu, shetani akiniona, anatetemeka..' [Translated; Lord Jesus is my refuge, when satan sees me, he starts shaking].

Whenever she sought out my Sunday-shoes, she would sing a Christian song that she had heard in Church the previous Sunday.

One day she looked for them and couldn't find them. She turned to me and asked where the shoes were, that she wanted to go to Church. I told her to go and get her own shoes under her cot. She looked at me as though I was a dim-wit and very patiently in a way to suggest that she was the adult and I the baby said in her limited vocabulary: 'mummy's shoes for going to Church'!

At two-and-a-half years, Oprah knows the importance of wearing a special shoe to go to the House of God. How much more should we know how important and special our Lord Jesus is! God, unlike Oprah, knew that man needed someone special to identify himself with in order to be made whole. As a result, He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for you and me.

He bids you to come! Come and find that joy, that peace that passes all understanding! Because He said that Jesus was the one to redeem us, accept Him now and worship Him, for He alone is worthy of praise.

Let us recognize Jesus' routine and be established according to His will for us. Let us put on Jesus' special badge - just like Oprah's special pair of shoes for singing praise songs - that identifies us with Him. Just as the faith of a little child who knows that Sunday-shoes are worn for singing songs of praise to Jesus, let us put on the helmet of salvation that identifies us with the Son of God!

Sarah Simiyu, Nairobi