While I was doing yardwork today I saw an older man wearing an Akubra approaching. I had seen this man walking around on the streets near our home other times before. I would see him lingering around plants, and once he was crawling around looking for something on the ground. As I swept, he walked up and introduced himself.
He was a soft-spoken man with a friendly, toothy smile. He wanted to see if I would grant him permission to pluck five small flowers from the bush near the street on my property as had been his custom for many years (unknown to me!). Apparently the neighbour had told him to move on. "But she does not own the plant because it is on your property," he said. "I've no problem with you taking flowers from the bush." I wasn't planning on using them, and if he had already been doing it what harm would it do? "I use them for prayers." Now I wasn't expecting this, a foreign idea to my western mind.
After a pause I asked, "Who do you pray to?" "I pray to Rama...I'm a Hindu." Continuing to smile he introduced himself formally, and we shook hands. "Good to meet you Ben. I live right around the corner," he said as we parted ways. The encounter had solved the mystery of what the gentleman had been doing whilst loitering around. He wasn't loitering: he was carefully, meticulously gathering flowers to offer to a deity in prayer. I look forward to meeting up with him again with the aim of speaking of my God and Saviour.
Now I don't know much about Hinduism, but I know devotion when I see it. From a biblical and Christian perspective I know there is one God, the Creator of this world filled with trees, stones, seas, flowers, animals, and people. This nice old man from down the street was gathering flowers created by my God to offer to his god, one of many deities served by Hindus. Strange that Rama would receive a re-purposed gift! My God does not require an offering of flowers to hear and respond to prayers, and my allegiance ought to be greater than this man - for I know whom I worship, and He knows me. I grieve that a man would expend such effort to seek the blessings of images and demons who can only destroy and cannot save, but I also rejoice in the opportunity God has provided to share the reality of the Almighty seen in Jesus Christ.
"Land is patient," a mate of mine told me yesterday. This is true. God's love is also patient. There may have been a time in my life I would have blurted out something about my superior God in reply, but I am learning the importance of valuing other people first rather instigating a conversation only to give a message. The message I have of the Gospel is greater than any man, but it is a message to be delivered according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. I trust God will provide me the opportunity to sow the good seed of God's Word, learn something from my neighbour, and perhaps make a friend or even better - a brother in Christ along the way.
He was a soft-spoken man with a friendly, toothy smile. He wanted to see if I would grant him permission to pluck five small flowers from the bush near the street on my property as had been his custom for many years (unknown to me!). Apparently the neighbour had told him to move on. "But she does not own the plant because it is on your property," he said. "I've no problem with you taking flowers from the bush." I wasn't planning on using them, and if he had already been doing it what harm would it do? "I use them for prayers." Now I wasn't expecting this, a foreign idea to my western mind.
After a pause I asked, "Who do you pray to?" "I pray to Rama...I'm a Hindu." Continuing to smile he introduced himself formally, and we shook hands. "Good to meet you Ben. I live right around the corner," he said as we parted ways. The encounter had solved the mystery of what the gentleman had been doing whilst loitering around. He wasn't loitering: he was carefully, meticulously gathering flowers to offer to a deity in prayer. I look forward to meeting up with him again with the aim of speaking of my God and Saviour.
Now I don't know much about Hinduism, but I know devotion when I see it. From a biblical and Christian perspective I know there is one God, the Creator of this world filled with trees, stones, seas, flowers, animals, and people. This nice old man from down the street was gathering flowers created by my God to offer to his god, one of many deities served by Hindus. Strange that Rama would receive a re-purposed gift! My God does not require an offering of flowers to hear and respond to prayers, and my allegiance ought to be greater than this man - for I know whom I worship, and He knows me. I grieve that a man would expend such effort to seek the blessings of images and demons who can only destroy and cannot save, but I also rejoice in the opportunity God has provided to share the reality of the Almighty seen in Jesus Christ.
"Land is patient," a mate of mine told me yesterday. This is true. God's love is also patient. There may have been a time in my life I would have blurted out something about my superior God in reply, but I am learning the importance of valuing other people first rather instigating a conversation only to give a message. The message I have of the Gospel is greater than any man, but it is a message to be delivered according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. I trust God will provide me the opportunity to sow the good seed of God's Word, learn something from my neighbour, and perhaps make a friend or even better - a brother in Christ along the way.
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