A Family is the single most important influence in a child's life.
A bond in a family grows strong when each member comes together to support one another in their times of trial.
When we know who we are in the family, we are better able to channel the Love from within our heart to the World outside.
Our deepest need is to be loved, cherished and remembered. In a loving family nobody is ever forgotten.
A loss of any member in the family is unimaginable.
Imagine the heart of God! Imagine the heart of a Father, Who is in a continual mourning for His children.
We wage wars, we kill each other. The heartache is for the family who has lost their loved one.
During this time of Covid-19 many families have lost their loved ones. It is not just one particular family, but so many families across the Globe.
I don’t have a count of the families who have lost their loved ones. Only God does and knows!
In God, we are all His children.
Every member of every family, a child of God-children of God!
God’s love ETERNAL!
Gods pain never ending! We fail to see, what God sees? We are all His Children, created in His Image and likeness.
Can you imagine the look of a war ravaged town? All you see is shell shocked faces. There are homes all broken down. Bodies of loved ones stuck under the debris.
The future for these survivors is bleak. Some families have only one parent as a survivor and some have only children as the survivors.
Do we take responsibility for this injustice? These fearful children are later placed in a camp. We rob them of their life. We rob them of their innocence. In wars families are destroyed.
For the elders, there is no means to buy food for the hungry mouths to feed. They have to rely on what is given to them. Some of them have lived their whole life in this manner. Many have gone to their early graves, never having a chance for that one glimpse of hope after everything that was taken from them in a split of a second.
Only at night under the Sky, can they look at the Stars and dare to dream. Reality then knocks them awake with a sound of an explosion, the very next morning and they are again on a run for their lives. Each day, is the same as yesterday….
What is life for a man trapped in a war zone? There is no security-there is no guarantee to life.
There is a constant fear of missiles; there is no telling when or where it strikes.
In Exodus 5:1, we hear God say, ‘Let my people go’. Given the time we are in, the circumstances in our day to day life and where we have placed God in our lives, I wonder do we recognize the voice of God.
- Babies are God’s gift. According to WHO, every year in the world there are an estimated 40-50 million abortions (babies killed in their mother’s womb). Isn’t this murder? Cruel inhuman torture-inhuman killing. And we celebrate women’s day! The 10 COMMANDMENTS: The 5th: Thou shalt not kill.
- Everybody has a right to life and a right to live. We forget it easily. We have never spoken out of fear of being criticized? We have in numerous instances, failed to uphold our brother’s dignity and his right to life. When we fail to speak for Justice-we then have supported an unjust cause.
- Killing in hatred, in the name of religion.
- The poor are exploited. They have rights too and nobody to read them their rights.
Clearly this is not what God ever intended, for we are all His children.‘Let my people go’.
What hurts my brothers-sisters must truly break my heart? For if we did have a heart as that of God, we would never have permitted such atrocities being committed. (The Book of Genesis says, we were made in the Image and likeness of God. Therefore, our heart must be like God, but it isn’t).
This is a thought that I often ponder on.
God says - ‘Let my people go’.
To maintain safety people were advised to keep a meters distance. To survive would mean that we must adhere to rules and regulations. But not everyone seemed to understand or follow.
In our Church, the Priest had made a request urging the Parishioners not to touch the statues and to receive the Holy Communion in hand. Even a placard was placed at every statue I think. (I am not sure of this-it was when Covid-19 had just made its entry into Mumbai, India)
But even then I saw people kiss the statues and 3-4 of them received the communion on their tongue.
Most of the Catholics stick to this point, ‘we believe in Jesus and so He will save us’.
True, trust in Jesus, will always give you a 100% result. Your Faith has healed you. Right?
What about obedience to The Cardinal, to Your Priest, to the Government.
Faith + Obedience = Gods Will.
In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus falls on the ground and prays, ‘if it were possible, the hour might pass from him’. Mark 14:35
Mark 14:36 And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee; remove this cup from me; yet not what I will, but what thou wilt.”
all things are possible to thee; Words Jesus spoke to His Father, in prayer. Jesus believed it was possible for Abba, Father to keep Him from this suffering. (Jesus could have persisted, BUT…) And in a complete surrender, Jesus adds, ‘yet not what I will, but what thou wilt.’
Jesus walked to His suffering on The Cross. John 3:16 says it perfectly: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Please read: Luke 12:
[15] And he said to them, "Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
[16] And he told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully;
[17] and he thought to himself, `What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?'
[18] And he said, `I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
[19] And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.'
[20] But God said to him, `Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'
[21] So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
[22] And he said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on.
[23] For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
[24] Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!
Each one of us has dreams. Some of us have great aspirations. We think we know what we want. And we make plans to how we will get there.
Everyone wants the fastest way to get rich. The wants they never stop.
But something like COVID-19 comes in the way.
Everyone has lost somebody whether in a family or someone they know. There is no stability, as is in a warzone.
So the question do you have a job seems nonsensical. Do you see where I am getting to?
There are families suffering because an earning member has lost his job. It is difficult in both the situations, the war zone and now in the time of Covid-19. Both sides suffer!
And I also heard this most often that families suffered because of EMI’s
My thought: 'don't count your chickens before they hatch', we learnt this way back in school. But somewhere down the line, we forgot it.
When you want what you need, the right means would be to save the money and then purchase the product. You don’t buy something based on the money you don’t have in hand. Because, how can one guarantee that he/she will have the job tomorrow?
Never count on tomorrow, because I don’t have a guarantee for today. 'Defer not till tomorrow to be wise, tomorrow's sun to thee may never rise.'
Trust in Jesus! Leave everything of your life to Him! And God will work wonders in your life. You cannot dream the way God dreams for you!
Make God, your number ONE priority in life!
Truth be spoken-It is difficult not to give in to the charms of this world. But remember this, this life is temporary.
HEAVEN is the ultimate Beauty! It is our HOME!
