Seeking Hearts

I wouldn’t have been convinced myself either, if I were to not face the abysmal voidness of materialistic existence, the devastating currents of the stormy trials and the dangers of passing through the dark valleys. A tasteful experience of God’s saving grace and the aftermath gush of peace, shapes the teachable and understanding heart. Being on the other side now, what perspective might help a seeking heart, an inquiring mind, that’s trying to figure things out and trying to make sense of life?

Lately, my little seekers have been inundating me with heaps of questions seemingly simple but surprisingly profound. I have listed a couple of recent ones here….

“Can we hurt Satan?” “Can we get out of the curse?” “What is an Equator?” “Did you know that Peter said NO to Lord Jesus when He was going to wash his feet?!” “Where is Bangladesh?” “Can I please have 9000 siblings?”

Amma, Can we hurt Satan? Initially I thought I heard it wrong… so I tried to repeat by rewording it, “Can… Satan hurt us?” But the response was almost instant… “No Amma, Can *we* hurt Satan?” O.o that felt deep but I had to first immediately address the question at it’s face value, and so I responded… “OK, so if there is ever a choice we have to make, we must never hurt… anyone. Is that not one of the rules of our family?” This time the response had a bit of curious tone, “Yes Amma, I know we are not to hurt… but Satan is evil, so it has to be OK! …Right?” I sensed in my spirit that the whole premise now expanded to include a number of layers of moral high ground, justice and… love. I prayerfully attempted to clarify… “You’re absolutely right that Satan is what we know as evil and everything bad… but that should still not make it OK for us to be hurtful. In fact Satan would probably love it if we even just think about causing hurt to others; We must not want to or seek to hurt others, even if they’re wrong or evil. But do you know what actually hurts the evil one? When we put God first in our lives and do the right thing in obedience to Christ. We don’t need to know or think or worry about the evil one who wants us to fail and disobey God; and is never around to help us when we face the bad consequences of our bad choices. But God however, never leaves us, He lifts us up and comforts us. He came down as Lord Jesus, Son of God, to live like human beings and understands how the evil tries to trick us to do the wrong things and knows that we sometimes end up doing the wrong thing. And yet, in spite of knowing that, God so loved us that He sent His only begotten Son to save us by taking on all of our guilts/punishment on the cross to death, defeated the evil one by rising back alive and ascended up in all glory, thereby sending The Holy Spirit to help us. Therefore it is only and always God who is good and truly loves us, so we must follow Christ’s example to think of things that are Godly, good, true, kind, helpful.” It’s been two days since this conversation happened, and every moment since, my own response speaks back to me, reminding me to make good choices, do the right thing, to choose God above everything both in thought and in action. And as for my children, I surrender them to God to grant His saving grace so they come to full knowledge of the risen savior, Lord Jesus Christ.

Amma, where is Bangladesh? I was still trying to wake up from my morning slumber as I heard that question in a very enthusiastic tone! “Oh… wow that’s a great question! What do you know about it?” I replied trying to gauge some context. The response sounded a bit apprehensive… “Hmm… Isn’t that a country, Amma?” I realized I needed to not dampen the enthuse and address the question on its face value first – “Brilliant, yes! I quickly grabbed pillows and phone etc to place them as countries and explain the map… So here’s India, here’s Bangladesh to its right, all the way here’s Australia, and here’s the USA, China, Nepal, Pakistan, Malaysia…” I continued further… “I don’t recall mentioning or teaching you about Bangladesh, but it’s great you’ve heard of it! Was Appa teaching you about it?” And that question prompted a sudden exit from the room only to return moments later with a piece of clothing, waving intently, “Here Amma, look! I really like this Tee and it’s says here this is made in Bangladesh. I would really like to go to Bangladesh and thank everyone who made these?” I couldn’t give away how emotional and grateful hearing those words made me feel, so I quickly responded that it was very a kind and appropriate way to respond when you feel thankful; and that most importantly it was a Godly thing to be thankful, to feel and show our appreciation for all the things we are blessed with. May we never take things for granted and always count our blessings!