Memoir
Mary had a visitation of an angel and a sequence of events followed. There was not much time left to process what was happening around her. It all happened too quickly. Luke records twice in the same chapter that, “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart”. (Luke 2:19, and then 51)
There was
a silent period of 400 years between the Testaments. Nothing much happened. Or
did it happen, and it was not written down?
It could
be possible. During that period, two unknown remnants were waiting for the
Messiah in the temple – Anna and Simeon. God had spoken to them. They silently
waited. We see Zachariah faithfully serving God. These are just a few. There
might be others too. When Elijah said,
he was alone, God gives him the pattern of how He is going to work now and also
adds, “Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed
down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19:18) But we
do not read about their stories.
In the
year 1860, Evangelist John Aroolappan reads about the revival that happened in
England and starts praying for the same. He and his friends start praying for
this kind of outpouring of the Spirit. It spreads like wildfire. The written
word stirred up his heart. We can see that oral traditions and religions
without written sacred books die too soon for their followers. Only the
recorded documents stand to speak to the generations to come.
Pandit
Ramabai hears about the Welsh Revival and starts to pray for revival with a
group of women. She grew desperate to ignite the spark. She did all that she
could within her ability. Suddenly the Revival broke out. Acts 2 incidents
repeated its history and fire spread on.
After a
month of all this, someone approached her to write an account of the
incident. Ramabai wanting to be humble
and not claim credit for all that happened refused permission. This led her
into a serious depression. She could feel something was not right in her spirit
and allowed it to be published. This recorded story is an encouragement even
today. It helps us to understand that the Spirit never ceased at any time. We
can read many of her accounts in her writings. We can see that she has poured
out her heart in all her writings – staying humble throughout.
God is
asking Habakkuk to write down the vision He gave to him. Luke travelled with the
Apostles and early Christians to record all that happened. Our spirits are strengthened when we read
those accounts of Luke. Luke could recognise the treasure in Mary’s heart and
did not forget to write them down. We are in the era of Artificial Intelligence
where we can just ask a machine to write a book for us and publish it. Do we
really write down our stories of faith to the next generation? Are we patient
enough to tell our faith journey to our children?
It was a time between 9th and
10th plague. God gave instructions to Moses on how to celebrate
Passover. Even during that crucial time, He says, and when your children ask you, ‘What does this
ceremony mean to you?’’ then tell them, ‘It is the
Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed
over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck
down the Egyptians.’” (Exo. 12) Joshua called
together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from
each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the
ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to
take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the
Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the
future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was
cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.
These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”
(Joshua 4)
Beatrice
Godfrey
(Published in Insight Magazine - 2023)
Comments
Post a Comment