From Burma with God

From Burma with God!

                            All of us have had a close miss with death and we know for sure that an invisible hand protected us. How many of us know the invisible hands that protected the lives that brought us into this world? I wouldn’t have been existent if not for that incident which took place many years before I was born.Some small acts of kindness, some miracles incognito has shaped each of our lives and I’m blessed to know one of mine. Generations must remember the goodness shewn on their ancestors to remind each other about the God they serve and his goodness to the work of His hands.

Let me get to the story.  

                          During the times of the Second World War, in the year 1942, people who lived in certain countries not their own, were asked to return to their native places and move to safer refuges. The reason was the bombings that took place all around the world and particularly in some countries. One such place was the country of Burma, a neighbor of India. A lot of Indian families had then been living in Burma as fathers found work there. One such family of 7: a father, mother and five children started their journey from Burma only after the bombings started there. The trail was slow and dangerous as they had not taken a flight or a train through which the Burmese government had earlier transported many to India. On missing the government provided transportation, this particular family had to take the entire journey on foot. Sources say that they travelled for nearly a month to reach Indian soil. The journey was not easy as any is not meant to be; they had to cross hills, valleys, rivers, forests etc.

                        In the middle of the journey, the family had to cross a river and the marshes around it. The leader, the dad was quite a guide and was able to bring all of them safe up to this place. He supposedly had a gun which prevented any unnecessary attack. As the family finally moved slowly on to the marshes surrounding the river, all of them got caught in a quicksand. In a totally helpless state all 7 of them stood there wondering what to do. With every minute they stood there doing nothing, they were sinking deeper. 

The eldest of the kids, a well grown woman then just exclaimed with anger and exasperation, “Does our God live only in a church, does he not come here and all?”

Only a few moments passed, they were still going deeper when they saw a man. Yes, right in the middle of the marshes surrounding the river in the mountainous terrain. This man held each of the 7 by his hand and pulled them out. Yes, out of the quicksand. You read it all right and it’s absolutely true. Furthermore the man guided their way by telling them to go on in a particular direction wherein he said they would find a military camp which would provide for them. The family took time to shove off the mud from their clothes after which they looked up to thank the man. Guess what? He was nowhere to be found! The family realized God’s goodness and discussed amongst themselves about how the man wore a white dress and no mud dared to stick on it! With renewed faith and glee filled hearts they all walked in the direction they were told to. And without guessing, the man was right about the military camp and about guiding them to the right place.

                      The family continued their journey and safely reached Kolkata (Calcutta), in the Indian soil. They soon took a train to Madras (Chennai) and then moved to Madurai. The youngest of the 7 came down to Chennai and had two sons. The eldest son had one daughter and that’s the one writing the blog! (do read it again if you didn’t get, sorry for the interruption if you had got it)

                     The youngest picked up that day was 8 years old then, and 85 years old now. Even today he(my grandpa) talks about that day as the day God saved him and his family from the hands of death. He is the only one alive to tell the story.

I thought it important to let others know of miracles that God has done, in ways we don’t expect him to. So unless God had saved my grandpa that day, maybe, well maybe I would’ve been non-existent! Just like if Ruth hadn’t come out of Moab, David the king maybe, well maybe could’ve been non-existent. If you ever doubt, there exists a God, then at least this is a standing argument, because there is no rational explanation for a man in white to be loitering in the mountains where marshes are harmful and the war is in the air. And if you doubt the credibility of my writing you could check with my grandpa, he lives in Chennai.

The same God, who appeared to Abraham, was and is with my grandpa and the same God is also with me. He is the same one who sees, protects and leads. His faithfulness goes on to a thousand generations of those who love him. May God’s name be praised!For it is one thing to believe in God, and another thing to know Who you believe! I know who I believe, do you?

because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.  2 Timothy 1:12b

PSALM 84: Even the sparrow has found a home

Even the sparrow has found a home.

When someone promises something, there is a percentage of probability in them keeping their promise, and the percentage depends on the CHARACTER of the one who promised. If the person is credible enough they need not even promise something but even when they say something, you know they will keep it because of WHO the person is. With that prelude, I begin to narrate a small part of my life introducing the promise, the promise keeper and the promise believer, (the last one’s me!)

We were looking for a better house to live in as soon as our neighbor of 18 years changed their house and we wanted another room probably. It didn’t matter much to me as I was more concerned about how my life was shaping up; after all buying houses is normally the business of the bigger ones in the family. I kept it in prayers and also told God that we were completely fine in the house that He had already given us. As we started looking for houses on sale, we found one house which we liked; it was quite affordable for us and I just thought, yea this is fine. (God had different plans, trust me, He never thinks small).

I came home with a small prayer in my heart asking God to lead us in our decisions regarding the house. The time came for me to read the Bible for the afternoon, and I found this verse:

EVEN THE SPARROW HAS FOUND A HOME AND THE SWALLOW BUILDS HER NEST AND RAISES HER YOUNG AT A PLACE NEAR YOUR ALTAR, O LORD OF HEAVEN’S ARMIES, MY KING AND MY GOD! 

 In Psalm 84:3. I underlined it and immediately knew what God had promised. With no doubt I told my mother, “Ma, our house will be near the church”. And that’s the PROMISE, by the PROMISE KEEPER.

Months passed by and I really never remembered much or prayed much about it, but whenever the topic came up, I would say, Ma our house will be near the church and we were the PROMISE BELIEVERS.Being a promise believer is no big a job but to trust; but to trust God when the wind blows, the boat topples, when nobody believes you, when the situations are improbable, when people laugh at you, when people plot against you, when nothing goes the way you thought it would….. then comes the play, that is the real test to the promise believers. In overcoming doubts, in blindly trusting with a crazy faith is the growth of a believer, a promise believer.

To cut the big story small, (I’m actually cutting a lot of tiny yet significant miracles on the way… should be experienced, you know, not read) we bought a house, and I am typing these sitting in the living room. Guess what, (why guess, it’s quite obvious) it’s exactly near our church. Yes, the sparrow found a home, near HIS ALTAR. We have built our nest facing the church.

I shall share a small experience and quite a few pictures to prove my PROMISE KEEPER’S faithfulness: In the night after we first moved into our house, we were making sure we switched off every light before we went to sleep. While checking, I saw a small red light’s reflection on one of the vessels in the kitchen. When we checked as to which light we had left on, it was the reflection of the light from the cross on our church’s tower, which glows all night and cannot be turned off by us.We can hear the church’s bell when it rings loudly from where I sleep, study and eat. I can probably do a spider man’s jump from our house’s terrace to our church. I can sleep everyday looking at the cross on the church. I can brush my teeth looking at our church… and so on

When a descendant of Korah wrote Psalm 84, I daresay he didn’t mean it for me, but when I read it so many years later, I knew God was making a promise. I knew that He was in control and had something in his plan that I wouldn’t have imagined even in my most creative dreams.These days I have a huge trust with regard to all the other promises on due by God who has whispered to me, sang to me, spoke to me and shouted to me.

I WILL NOT LEAVE YOU UNTIL I HAVE FINISHED GIVING YOU EVERYTHING I HAVE PROMISED YOU. GENESIS 28:15B 

Every brick in our home(though I may not see it all) reminds me of his unchanging words and character that can be relied upon every second for the rest of my life and after. I encourage you, my friend, whoever you are to listen to God who sings, whispers, shouts and says his promises to you: Fear not. This one God who is mine is also yours if you take him and he’s capable of doing much more to you as He had and is still doing, to me! Walk with God, trust God’s promises, believe it and watch as He fulfills it.

SOME CLICKS!

Another New Year?

What makes a new year’s beginning happy, is it because it is another holiday, another new dress day or another good food day? What makes the end of a 365 day journey different from any other sun rising day? Is it not the new hope that arises that day, wherein we hope to make things better than the last 365 days we had just walked through? Isn’t this the reason behind trying to make New Year Resolutions?

Of late, we have always grown fond of “doing things” and forgetting the reason for which we do it. For instance, we eat food and forget that we eat it to maintain our body’s well being and make ourselves indulge in it for the taste of the food eaten. Another more apt example, we go out with family and friends to spend quality time and end up taking good background pictures for our social updates. The point here is: the taste could be additional but must not take the place of the well being and the pictures are to be memory and not mandatory!

Coming back to the point, now a days the first day of the new year has become a grand affair, a reason to celebrate, another holiday, another day to wish each other but maybe not looked upon as an opportunity to renew, to change, to rekindle, to renovate etc..

What is the point in starting a New Year if we are going to dwell on the same old things? If we are going to continue a life of cheating, of lying, of purposelessness, of hopelessness, of waywardness, of uncleanness, of unending running and chasing; we might as well dwell in the previous year and its ways itself. Shouldn’t a new year bring in a new perspective, a new adventure, a new life, a new expectation, a new awaiting, a new goal or the like? A new year isn’t worth celebrating if we are going to continue in the same old life of… (the above stated things)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Here is a blessing to all in Christ, that no matter what, if you are in Christ, the old has no power over you, whether you live in the yesteryear or in the upcoming. Since an opportunity knocks, let’s take a moment to look back, to reconcile our “selves” to God our maker, to ourselves and to others. To see that extra smile on a loved one’s face, to walk that extra mile with someone, to work like you serve the higher purpose, to pursue that one childhood dream, to hope against hope because there is a God to believe in, there is a Heavenly Father to rely on, there is a wonderful counselor to hear from, there is a friend to speak to and in Him lies everything to make us new and whole.

This new year, let us try to make the God who gave us the extra year, feel like it was worth giving.

Facing the next challenge, what if nothing is new in life? What if the monotonous and mundane cycle just keeps repeating? What if there’s too much loss from the previous year that holding on to one day is in itself too hard? What if making money and holding the job alone stands as the art of living? What if, what if..?

Humanely speaking, these are true and almost all of us feel it at some point, Hold on, there’s still hope and there’s a choice. The hope is that: You can choose to arise and trust or you can stay where you are and wait for the next year to come.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
 they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)

There is always something new at the feet of God, always an expectation of joy when we expect from God; for we can never exhaust his mercies, they are new every morning, fresh from the garden of God. According to the verse above, every day has a new mercy, a new strength, a new knowledge and these reserves never run out.

Even if in the valley, we can climb out of it; if in the orbit with the Son at the center, then throughout your year's revolution, your rotatory joy remains. But if you're on the pendulum tied to a string only oscillation remains. Revolving or oscillating?