18th January 2010
In the early hours of today, Aman went home to Jesus. If you happen to call yourself evangelical (“true to the gospel”) you might initiate a debate with me on that. Aman was born into a Muslim family and died in a Muslim family and probably never heard about the remarkable story of God becoming flesh to bring us life. To me he was a bearer of that very message... similar to how a baby in a barn brought that message of hope to shepherds 2000 years ago.
A while back, while I was considering adopting a disabled child, as a pre-requisite I committed myself to spend at least 15 minutes of every day with Aman – carrying him, engaging with him and establishing a relationship with him. In addition to loving and being loved by him I wanted to experience a small part of the difficulty that his parents experience in raising him. I gave up very soon, primarily because it hurt my back to hold him for long. Also, after long efforts of animated discussions with him, he would barely respond to me. Occasionally he would gift me a slight smile and I would treasure those.
Aman was an angel sent to show me that God is love. His helplessness was an immediate reminder of a God who became that – helpless; to show me His heart... to invite me into relationship with Him.
Hey Aman, you lived well... you accomplished your task... you surely are a good and faithful servant of the King. You bore His image very well... Thank you... see you soon!
5 comments:
Recently, one of my sisters-in-law asked Ashita how she 'gives the gospel' to the ones she is living among.
And so, since you have asked for debate, let me say that I think the Bible is very clear about what will happen to those who are presented with the gospel message (that they are loved as they are, that Jesus took their punishment, died in their place so that they might now receive forgiveness freely as a gift, when they repent of their sin, and turn to Him) and then reject this good news, and decide to continue living as before.
I do not know what will happen to those who have never heard the good news, have heard a very poor version of it, those who are unable to understand it because of various disabilities, and those who die (in the womb, or very young) before hearing about Jesus. I am sure that God, being sovereign, wise and good, has a wonderful and perfectly fair plan, but it is not clear to me as yet. I am glad that I do not have to take the decision on where anybody else goes when they die.
Does that make sense?
Whenever I hear debate about who's going to heaven and who's going to hell, I think of this verse, Luke 12:7, "Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are of more value than many sparrows."
This verse has also giving me so much strength and encouragement in my own journey. To know that God knows the number of hairs on my head, something I don't even know myself, is an incredible reassurance. God knows each of us better than we know ourselves and there is a special part of each one of us that only He knows and that others can't see, sometimes we can't even see it in ourselves.
As a parent, I look at both Safina and Serena. I, along with Ashish, know them better than any one else on this Earth and yet, I don't know the number of hairs on their head. Even if I tried to count them, who knows how many would fall out in the process and I'd soon be mistaken.
God knows!!! I LOVE that about God! And, I love that like Pradeep said I don't have to be the one to know these things or decide these things. God is sovereign! The most I can do is fall to my knees and pray for mercy and salvation!
On a lighter note, Juliana, (and on a completely different tangent), I'm sure even you know the number of hairs on Ashish's head at present.....
lol....you are too funny.
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