The Light in the Darkness

I am grateful that I have a firm belief in who I know and believe is Jesus the Christ, who the angels announced would "save his people from their sin". Last week, we were seeing patients for the usual high blood pressure and diabetes when a little old man came in with no different complaint than most of the others. He was here for his blood pressure reading and to see if his diabetes meds needed any tweaking. Speaking Hindi, he suddenly got excited while he was talking to the doctor. We looked at her inquisitively because he was smiling and waving his hands in the air while he went on and on about something that obviously was important to him. The doc responded to our nonverbal inquiries by telling us that he was a hindu pundant or teacher. He had practiced Hinduism his entire life of 81 years. While coming to the hospital for his medical check ups, he had noticed the Bible verses on the signs and asked for a bible. He was given one in Marathi, the local dialect. He had gone home and started reading it. At this visit, he asked for one in Hindi so he could understand it easier, but he loved what he could understand. His waving of his hands had been to express the bright light that had came on in his life. He has never ever felt the joy that he has since discovering the purpose for the world and the God who is the real God. He went on to say that the gods that he had followed only wanted food offerings and such and would never respond to its followers-they were dead. The God in the Bible however worked in the lives of his people. He wondered how he could love so long without learning of this! He visited with the docs some more and he left with his new Hindi bible in hand. Later, we learned that his wife is an invalid whom he was the primary caregiver and she was still Hindu but he was determined to go home and read to her the Hindi bible so that she could share in his new found belief. He was going to maintain his teaching duties because he feared the consequences of conversion. Wow. God truly does draw men to himself where hi is lifted up.