Slybo

The time had come to talk to the man.  I had seen him around the town multiple times during the evangelistic meetings I was helping to arrange.  It was hard to miss him, sitting there on his wheel-chair, with his friend who was constantly walking beside him.

“My name is Slybo,” he told me. 

“Slybo, what happened to your legs?  How did you lose them?”  He was one of many crippled people in Tanzania, but he seemed so happy and friendly.  He was very easy to talk to, at least.

“Oh, I didn’t lose them.  I still have them.  Look!”  He pulled up the big shirt he was wearing, and sure enough, there were his legs!  If they could be called legs.  Twisted, distorted things that didn’t resemble what I knew of as legs. 

“Slybo, what happened to you?  Were you born this way?”

“No, I was able to walk until I was about 10 years old.  Then my legs started hurting and bending and soon I couldn’t walk anymore.  The doctors called it polio.  My parents didn’t have enough money to buy the medicine, so I became a cripple.”

“Slybo, I am sorry.  Can I read you something?  The Bible says that you can have new legs again.”  Then I opened up my Swahili Bible and read to him from Isaiah 35.

“Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who have an anxious heart,
Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
For waters break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;”

Isaiah 35:3-6

“Slybo, wouldn’t you like to be there in heaven, to be given new legs?”

“Yes,” he replied with happy eyes.  “And I want that book!”