Precious, Ultimate Gift...

6th April 2005 The contractors handling the roadwork came over this morning to complete their unfinished work. Though not a very satisfactory work, I guess that’s the best they can do and it is pointless to have higher expectations. The front portion leading to the main entrance gate which was washed away by the flood waters had been repaired and nor we can enjoy a smoother ride into the property. Frequent rains over the last two weeks had brought about renewed vigor from the plants, fastest to respond to the new found moisture are the weeds. So it is back to using the brush cutter again next week. It is pretty much a monthly chore for me, dressed up from head to toe with my long sleeves, long pants, working boots, gloves, protective goggles, sun hat, headphones and my MP3 player to drown out the engine noise. It is no easy task but with music to accompany me, it is bearable. Oh! I received my very own 60GB Ipod Photo few weeks back, a gift that brought a smile to me. What would we do without music? Anyway, I’ve digitized most of my cd collection, still have about 100 to go before the entire collection is digitized.

Oops! The ipod isn’t the gift I am talking about with regards to my heading. Precious, Ultimate gift refers to the gift of love we have received from our Father in heaven. This love is unconditional and is manifested through his death on the cross. Sometimes it is easy to forget Jesus as we proceed with our daily everyday lives, preoccupied with the trappings of life we struggle to make sense of our existence, our purpose and our goal for the remaining lap of our race. I often indulge in endless debates within my mind over the many ironies and perplexity of life and how it treats us. We are all getting a different deal as we drift along, each turn reveals how ‘unfair’ it is for some and ‘too fair’ for others. However it seems to me that we can only detect or be affected by this inequitable treatment we are receiving if we loose sight of the calling which we have received from God. Giving our lives to Jesus means exactly that, it does not belong to you, it calls for us to decrease and Him to increase, we shall be transform and become like Him, having the capacity and capability to love as He has loved. Having the vision to see beyond the shame and hopelessness of the death on cross and realize how powerful, great and perfect this sacrifice is. Bizarre it is but the ultimate price to pay for the perfect love. I say this is the only thing that the devil can’t fake, love, there is no way Satan can fake or imitate love. He can misrepresent love, paint the wrong picture, distort it, present his ‘style’ of love but it will never come close to the real thing. I am of the opinion that if there was ever a secret weapon in our war chest for conquering the enemy’s territory, setting captives free, making the blind to see and the lame to walk, it is this. Love, the same love revealed by Jesus. If love is the underlying anchor for all our actions and responses then we would have brought a piece of heaven to those we had been entrusted to ‘save’. Signs and wonders isn’t it, people are drawn to the supernatural but it is only natural that they will run to the next spell-blinding, better present ‘trick’. Friends, love is what we should reach for to neutralize the noise coming from the clanging cymbals. People can’t see, can’t walk because there is too much ‘show’ in our present day churches. They shall remain blind and lame as long as we continue to be blind and lame ourselves. They continue to languish in misery as we the torch bearers continue to rot and decay in our ignorance. God help us.