Saleef

     I can see Saleef now, a tall handsome fellow with a smile as wide as the sea! When he is working, he wears a sleeveless T-shirt, cotton trousers, plastic flip flops, and a baseball cap perched on his head. Otherwise, he proudly wears his traditional garments. I knew Saleef for five years while I was living in West Africa; he was always trying to help people, so thoughtful of every one’s needs.

 
     One day as Saleef was chopping weeds in my back yard and I was trapping colorful butterflies, he suddenly inquired, “Mrs. Ruth, what are you doing with that net? Are you trying to catch fruit as it drops from the trees?” “No, I am catching butterflies,” I replied. “Butterflies?” he responded with a puzzled look on his face. “But you can not eat butterflies!” When I explained to him that collecting African butterflies was my husband’s hobby, he burst out laughing. “Then let me HELP you and Mr. Gary catch butterflies!”

 
     Now Saleef was a very intelligent lad. He spoke and read two languages fluently, plus he was always learning. “Mrs. Ruth, I want to live in America, some big city like Los Angeles or New York. Please tell me about your country.” So I would spend time sharing with him stories from my homeland. Saleef also had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. One day I gave him a New Testament Bible written in the French language. Saleef seemed to devour its every page, comparing its truths with his traditions.

 
     I noticed one afternoon as he sat on the cool cement porch with his back against my house, that he was intently studying two different books, one was the Holy Bible and the other was The Koran. As I walked by he commented to me, “Mrs. Ruth, I am beginning to understand about Jesus, but I just can’t follow Him yet. Because if I do, I may lose everything: my family, my friends, my community respect, my property, my burial rights, even my life.”

 
     “I am so sorry, Saleef, I replied, because Jesus said, ‘Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For what will it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?’” “I will think on this matter,” Saleef solemnly concluded. Then I prayerfully walked away.

2 comments June 16th, 2006