Sunday, November 20, 2011

Thats my King!



While in school, one subject that I dreaded the most was History!!! Long lessons, boring lectures, too much to study about things I thought were not relevant anymore; dates, events and names which were too many to fit into my small brain! But the one thing that interested me was kings, their stories and their royal lifestyle.  Lately I found the interest being renewed.

Spending more than a year in Hyderabad gave me an opportunity to see and experience the royal lifestyle of the yesteryears. From Golconda Fort to Salarjung Museum to Chowmohalla Palace, each one of them showed the luxurious lifestyle the earlier Nawabs had. The icing on the cake was the visit to Falaknuma Palace, where an entire part of the palace has been renovated and restored to how it was hundreds of years ago. From the Nawab’s office which had his books, his pictures, his royal seal and papers, the quill pen with which he used to put his  royal signature, to the banquet hall adorned with crystal chandeliers, to the dining room which had gold plated cutlery, the longest dining table I have ever seen etc etc etc. I was just dumfounded as the guide took us from one room to another!!! The grandeur in which they lived just took my breath away!




Well all thats exactly what comes to my mind when I think about Kings - palaces, forts, wealth, gold, silver, luxurious lifestyle, armies....... But all that fades away before my King! He is a king who had none of it, who didn’t have a place to be born and when He grew up He had no place to stay, who was a nomad wandering from one town to another, who never had the luxury of hosting banquets, who never had any wealth or Gold , who didn’t have a mighty army, but instead whose followers were a bunch of illiterates, outcasts. In spite of this, He is a King whoHHHhhjj is more powerful than any other king, whose kingdom spreads farther than any others, whose reign is everlasting, who has touched and transformed more lives than any other, who is and will forever be called the King of Kings. That my King! Do you know Him?

Watch the video below.





He’s a king who said,  “The greatest  love a person can have for his friend is to give his life for them . And you are my friend. I do not call you servants. I call you friends... This, then, is what I command you: love one another.” (John15:13-17)


God Bless!


Sunday, November 13, 2011

One in 7 Billion?



I love travelling and when I joined work I never thought it would give me an opportunity to do the same. But these days my job day takes me places. One day here, another day somewhere else, from the biggest towns to the smallest villages and I meet my colleagues from different places, different backgrounds, with different achievements, different concerns, different experiences, different stories to tell. I meet at least ten new individuals each day and may be close to a 50 in a week, but out of all of them at the end I remember only a few. Blame it on my amazing memory power, but that’s how it is. I remember those few because of their extraordinary achievement or experiences. I guess that’s the same with all of us. When we come across lots of people/things/events we remember only the extraordinary and forget the ordinary. According to Miller, the magical number is seven i.e. we can remember seven things, seven names, seven digits at a time easily. That seems to be a workable number. But imagine if you have to remember 7 Billion names, faces!



This week the world population crossed 7 Billion. We are now 7 Billion strong, each one with his/her own story. Just the other day I was thinking, “Who am I?”  I’m a part of the family to some, friend to some, acquaintance to some, colleague to some, but at the end I’m one in 7,000,000,000. I’m just another ordinary guy, just another face in the crowd, just another name among billions. But I know there is someone who knows me through and through, who has been with me every second of my life, who knows my every thought, listens to my every word, answers my every prayer, for whom I'm not just a face in the crowd, who actually made my face in His own image and likeness, who knows my name and keeps it so close to Him. He is God Almighty, my Father in Heaven - the God who created us all, not just us humans but every creature in the whole universe.  And He does so for each one of us! 


I haven’t done anything extraordinary, I don’t have any special talent or achievement, but still He knows me, He knows me by name. I spent years, months, days in ignorance, in denial but He never ignored me, He knows everything that is going on in my life. Even now I go away from Him, hurt Him but He still comes closer to me. I live my life without even thinking about Him, but He takes care of me always and says “even the hair on your head is counted.” (Mt 10:30) I have done nothing, absolutely nothing, to deserve His love, but still He loves me unconditionally, so much so that He being God, became man, came down to earth, took birth in an abandoned manger, lived like mere mortal, went through the most humiliating trial, suffered the most excruciating torture, died the most shameful death. All for me.

Deep down inside I know, when He hung on that wooden cross two thousand years ago, in front of hundreds who mocked Him, humiliated Him, tortured Him, through all the pain and agony, He said, “I do this for you. I call you by name. You are mine.(Isaiah 43:1)




Who am I? I may be one in 7 Billion, but  Father,  I know,  I’m yours!


God Bless!