I will always remain grateful to the maker of the world and mankind. Truly the lord ab initio had great thoughts for man. Little wonder the holy book states in Jeremiah 29:11 “I know the thought I think toward man; thought of peace and not evil, to give him a hope and a future”. He God has always meant well and that is why we freely consume natural oxygen which is definitely better than artificial oxygen. If we are to put the price list in terms of the cost of the oxygen we consume per minute you will be surprised to also know that in a day, most people may find it difficult to have access to life and existence. Yet most people are not grateful and thankful to the maker and giver of the free oxygen.
The most annoying part is that the energy, the power and the air which God freely give to man are what man uses to bring frustrations and hardships to others. As a little girl, my Sunday school teacher had often shown us the picture of Jesus, and the picture which I knew then was that of a handsome man who was usually clad in white robes – an evidence of his purity and holiness. And that picture has remained in me ever. But unfortunately the same people for whom this | urity per excellence gave up everything to redeem with His precious blood most of the times do not represent He who made them.
I will always remember one of the books I read in my university days, a literature text with the title Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad which portrays how men’s hearts are filled with negative tendencies at the slightest chance. The book talks about European colonialism during which Africans were subjected to slavery of all sorts. The Europeans wanted the best sides of life while blacks were treated with so much disdain that you wonder if He that made the whites equally made the blacks.
There is so much evil blood running in the veins of men. Ab initio, God created man with a pure undiluted blood but when the serpent came in the Garden of Eden that cool evening, he made frantic efforts to change the order of God and he never left Eden until he succeeded in injecting the bad blood of disobedience which multiplied into hatred, anger as subsequently displayed by Cain against his brother Abel. Sometimes in my sober moments, I had wished that the serpent never ventured into Eden because if he hadn’t the world would have been blissful and heavenly.
Today, the devil rules and controls the hearts of men. He leads them to commit all sorts of atrocities: from rape to murder, stealing, back-biting, adultery, kidnapping, fraudulent tendencies, to mention but a few. One of the sad things about life is that God allows both the wheat and the chaff to grow together. Yes! The creator of life allows the good and the bad to sojourn in the same world. He allows the sons of God and the sons of satan to share the same world. And while the sons of God are busy propagating love, peace, joy, good-neighbourliness and their likes. The sons of the devil are busy disrupting the peace of men.
One can hardly sleep these days with one’s two eyes closed else the sons of the enemy attack. You can hardly walk on the street freely, without being conscious of your steps else one strays into the den of the lions and suffer being devoured by the lions.
Today the devil and his cohorts are walking round the clock to depopulate the kingdom of Heaven while the kingdom of darkness thrives. Strange things are happening everyday. The most alarming is the rate at which people are dying like fowls. As a child, I hardly could remember how much news of deaths I ever heard or saw. We do not remember death because it was a rare visitor then and even when it came, it went to the house of the aged; those who were willing and had already prepared for the august visitor Mr. Death. And when it did come, they had gladly gone home to meet their maker in the place of rest. Most of them then had died peacefully in their sleep.
Those aged then were noted for their goodness, straightforwardness and contentment. They guarded themselves with the helmet of truth. Greed and envy were the least you could ever find in their domain. Most of them hadn’t the opportunity of the new religion, yet when they looked up they recognized that there was a being up there who watched every step they took. They saw God in the things around them. They saw God in the rocks, oceans and rivers, the moon and the stars, and in all creation. Above all, they reverenced God. They had no access to western education. They did not read the Bible, rather their fellow human beings became the guide book for them all. They hadn’t much preachers around and yet their steps were guided in the right direction.
As a growing child I grew up to know that elders don’t lie. My father never lied to me at least to the best of my knowledge. When they gathered at the village meetings, who ever erred was told and such suffered the penalties associated with such crimes. The act of living in fear of fellow men was not there. One can go to bed at night without locking one’s doors and pad locks then were not regular sights. Also the meat for one is the meat for all. People ate, drank and shared jokes together and life indeed was a beautiful one.
However with the presence of civilization and the emergence of the new world, things have fallen apart. Today the centre can no longer hold. People are no longer afraid of the Maker and His laws. Every man has gone astray doing what is pleasing to him. The civilization that ought to bring goodness has now become the source of woes. Sometimes, I have cried to God and wondered if He can separate the real wheat from the chaffs. Is there any way possible the righteous can be in this world without the sons of satan? The answer I usually receive inwardly is a capital “NO”. I hear a voice each time I find myself in this mood telling me it is not possible for such separation and that such can only be possible in another world and not in this present \Nor\6.
The death toll these days is rising by the day. I have heard stories of how people have died mysteriously behind their steering, even while driving. Some people have died after taking the might meal, they have gone to bed without rising to see the next day. Some have been poisoned by kindred souls, some killed by their spouses. I have equally heard of people’s deaths caused by their biological children. Some years ago I read a story in one of our dailies of a boy who strangled his grand-mother simply because she refused to give him a certain amount of money. And those are also part of life and existence.
Such is the present situation of the world we are in. the heavens may be falling, the stars may be dimming, the earth may be quaking, the flowers in the garden may wither and the waters of the oceans may be drying up thereby affecting the fishes in the oceans, but these evils wont go away! My consolation rests on God, who is the unmoved mover of every moveable thing. He is still God and cannot fall, not even in moments of our weakness. His strength is made perfect in our weakness.
We should not in any way faint, because if we do it means our strength is small. Be rest assured that we have a God who is greater than any big problem you may think you have and he is there to lift you out of it all.
Once again rest in His grace because his grace is sufficient for all of us and we must consciously choose never to drown.
GOD’S GRACE !
