Y-E-B-O

Last week in Sunday school the teacher introduced first graders to books of the Bible. We started by turning to Psalms – it’s an easy one, right in the middle.

Each Sunday morning, I buddy up with a student with special needs. Last week I showed my first grade buddy the several places where “Psalm” was written on the page. I said “Psalm” each time I pointed. He mimicked my pronunciation. Then the Bible accidentally flopped to Colossians, several pages to the right, in the New Testament. With no prompting from me, he pointed to the title of the book and said, “Colossians.” I was stunned.

This morning the first graders cut out letters and glued them to a long strip of paper. My buddy cut out his letters and glued “Y-E-B-O” onto the strip. Later, again without my prompting, he rearranged the letters to spell “obey.”

Turns out, “yebo” is a Zulu word for “yes” or “I agree.” My buddy had no knowledge of this – nor did I at the time. During the morning service, the pastor talked about how, when God says to do something, our response needs to be immediate obedience. Delayed obedience, he said, is actually disobedience. When He prompts us to do something, “Yebo” is a pretty good response.

I learn a lot from hanging out with kiddos.