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)
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 unseen 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 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)
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)
God calls each of us to be a Theo-librarian in our own way to
record our journey to become like Him, writing down in humble spirit, bringing
all glory to Him and Him alone. Record your faith walk with Him to pass the
baton to the next generation.
Beatrice Godfrey
(Published in INSIGHT 2023 - a magazine of CGLD)
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