Good-Bye Saul

“Saul, Saul, Saul, what am I going to do with you? What do you think I can do? You look at me with those sad dark brown eyes and say, ‘I need help’. I want to help you, I really do? But it’s not possible for me to get papers so you can go back to Cincinnati and work. I know you are separated from your family and you want to be with them. I know your life is full of problems. I just don’t have the money or the means to help you in that way.

“Every time I see you, you have been drinking. Why do you drink so much, Saul? Is it because you have problems or do you have problems because you drink so much? Is this your only way to ease the pain?

“Saul, my heart goes out to you. The friendly smile from behind that dirty baseball cap and scruffy hair makes it so hard to ignore you. It would be so much easier if I could just ignore you. But I can’t. Where do you sleep at night? I’ll bet it’s in that cold house where you work to earn your five dollars a day. Do you only eat what you can buy at the corner store? Possibly a bowl of noodles, a bag of chips or a cake.

“How can we really help? Giving a few cakes or a package of soup doesn't seem too change much. It keeps you from being hungry for the night but does nothing for tomorrow. Should I feel guilty? I want to give you a Bible. Can you read, Saul? Do you even care what’s in the Bible or has a lifetime of crucifixes hardened your heart?

“Saul, I have to go. I want to be alone with God. I need His insight in order to understand you, to understand me, to understand our complicated worlds. I need to acknowledge that I am weak and need His intervention for your sake and mine.

“Good-bye, Saul. We are moving to Puebla. I’ll probably never see you again except in the faces of those whose paths we cross and whose lives are just like yours.”

* (This is a random photo posted solely as a representation)