Holy Cows and an Elephant-faced God

Have you ever seen someone become aware of something for the first time that you have treasured for most of your life? It is a wonderful experience. I have a friend in Manila who is from India and she is a Hindu. She came to a small group Bible study in our home. We valued her sweet, sensitive disposition, her love for her family and her delicious Indian food. She often shared interesting stories about life in India. On several occasions I asked her to read verses from the Bible.

One of her favorites was a passage about love in I Corinthians 13: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” I liked hearing her read the words in her beautiful accent as she was taking in the full meaning. We compared that to the different ways people define love and try to find love in different cultures. It often proved to be a lively discussion since four nation were represented in the group.

But my favorite moment was a few weeks later when she read this passage from John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” Then she asked, “I have never heard this before, will you explain it to me?” She had always believed in many impersonal gods who did good or evil and held a view that she would be reincarnated many times. It was strangely new for her to think of a God who would sacrifice in love, the kind of love she had read about weeks before, for her personally and for the whole world to experience forgiveness and eternal life.

There are so many diverse and interesting cutures, but truth is the same in every part of the world. Think about this today. Do you know life-changing truth that is worth telling others? If you do, you probably work, study or interact with people every day who have a desperate cry for answers, no matter what exterior they present to the world around them. Determine in your heart to get to know them better and look for an inroad to reach out to them. You may be the only one who will care enough to do so. It starts with a decision of the heart.