Malankara World

Today with Jesus

Majesty of God

by Rev. Fr. V.V. Paulose, Toronto, Canada

Today's Bible Verse

"At this time a message from God came to John, son of Zechariah, who was living in the wilderness." (Luke 3:2)

Discussion

Have you ever enjoyed a life away from your man-made world?

We often judge people by their superficial standards of power, wealth and beauty, and miss the truly great people through whom God works! Greatness is measured not by what you have, but by faith in God. We cannot dream and imagine the length and breadth of his creation. Simply look at the sky on a full moon night. This will make us realize how small our inventions, construction and scientific advancements are.

All of our artificial inventions stand at the mercy of God. An unprecedented snow in Europe made the continent stand still helplessly last month. The vast galaxy that we live in is spinning at an incredible speed of 490,000 miles an hour. But even at this breakneck speed, our galaxy still needs 200 million years to make one rotation. And there are over one billion other galaxies just like ours in the universe. We have to learn to live closer to nature instead of going away from it. When we allow our children to play with mud and ice, stay in tents and camps, swim in seas and rivers, and trek in hills and valleys, we are taking them closer to the lap of God. John lived in the wilderness eating honey and locusts.

Once, a wealthy father took his son to stay with a poor family on a village farm. On their return, the father asked his son as to how his trip was. "It was great, Dad. I saw that we have one dog and they have 4. We have a pool but they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them." The father was speechless. Then his son added, "Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are."

We should not be proud of our material wealth. That will come and go. We have to praise God for his providence and wonderful creation. Wealth is for all. We have no right to fix fees and prices for natural resources like air and water, and stop the poor from enjoying them.

Prayer

Jesus, let our generation come out from their closets and see your creation and its greatness and beauty. We hope your divine intervention will stop commercialization of natural resources. Let all of us have equal access to the bounty of your creation. We ask this in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

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