The Hiding Place

If not for the old lady, who lived next door, my uncle and aunt wouldn't have been sitting in a church hall that evening. As usual they would gone to a cinema theatre to watch a movie on that Saturday evening. A revival meeting would have been the last place anyone would have expected to see them. Though uncle grew up in a church going family, and attended church to please his family in his early years, he showed no interest in church or God once he became an adult.

Now, in his forties, he had everything he had dreamed of- a steady job, a beautiful and devoted wife, five children and a house beside the sandy beach. He was floating high and enjoying life with no desire or time for God. It's at this time, his neighbor started inviting him and aunt to accompany her to church. Every time, uncle had some excuse to give the old lady and shoo her away. But then a four-day revival meeting started to happen in the city, close to their place and their good neighbor pleaded with uncle and aunt to join her at least for these meetings. Because my uncle and aunt loved this kind lady, they agreed to go with her this time with one condition. Never again, she should bother them with such request.The old lady agreed, and so they went.

The preacher's message that evening on the " Fall of Adam" greatly touched my aunt's heart. In silence, she asked God to open my uncle's ears too to hear the message as she did. To her surprise, she noticed my uncle keenly listening to the preacher as he read Genesis :3 from an old King James Bible. During the sermon, when the preacher suddenly raised his voice and called out, " Adam...Adam, where are you?" something strange began to happen. My uncle, who was seated in the middle row in the hall, heard those words very different from what the others heard. In his ears, the preacher's words sounded as if God was calling out to him -" Abraham...Abraham where are you?"

The first thought that popped up in his head was Am I hiding from God like Adam? Where am I hiding? What would I tell Him if He asks me?
A chill ran down his spine. The calling sounded so real and convicting, he realized how "far gone" he was from God. Like Adam caught in the spotlight of God, my uncle too searched for a place to hide. Finding neither bushes to hide nor Eve to blame on he bowed his head and started to sob like a child.

On that night, when the preacher gave the altar call, my uncle scurried down the aisle along with my aunt and surrendered his life to Christ. From that day onwards, he spoke of nothing, but the love of Christ to whoever came across his path. It didn't take long for him to decide to give up his high paying job to become a lay preacher and a radio evangelist for the Back to the Bible ministry in South East Asia.

Even in his dying moments, he demonstrated how much he loved the Lord. At the hospital, where he was laying in bed one afternoon, the patient on the next bed offered him a newspaper to read. But my uncle politely refused the offer, by telling him that he was too excited to meet his Lord that he had no time to read the newspaper. With that, he closed his eyes for the last time and went to be with the Lord at age 62, after a brief illness.

After his death, when his radio ministry was about to be discontinued, my aunt courageously stepped forward to carry on the ministry. " It's the Lord, who pushed me to do that," she always proclaimed. Truly she demonstrated what Philippians 4:13 says-"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Otherwise, how could a shy, stay-at -home like her with no college education or proper training could carry out a radio ministry, as well as become the managing editor of a Back to the Bible publication?

A few years back, she passed away at the age of 95 with the satisfaction of serving her Lord to her fullest. I don't know how many thousands of lives, my uncle and aunt would have impacted by their ministry. It all happened because some good neighbor took them to a gospel meeting to hear God's message. Even my life was touched by their love for Christ.

As a child, I looked forward to uncle Abraham's visits. In fact, he was the first born-again Christian I ever met. During his visits, I enjoyed listening to the Bible stories and waking up in the mornings to the clanging of his tambourine and songs of praises. His love for Jesus sparkled through his eyes and bubbled through his words that I couldn't help, but fall in love with Jesus at a very young age.

In my teen years, he anchored my faith by sending me gospel tracts and books of godly men like Sadhu Sundar Singh, D.L.Moody, Billy Graham and others. You wouldn't be reading this blog, if not for my uncle, who brought me to Christ. My uncle and aunt wouldn't have had a ministry to share the love of Christ, if their neighbor hadn't persisted in inviting them to attend the revival meeting. Otherwise, who knows we too might have found a hiding place to get away from God.

Some of us may hide behind the wall of wealth, power, pleasure and even good works to avoid anything to do with God. But God love us too much to ignore us. He keeps on calling our names. Sometimes, He devises storms and hardships to get our attention and to make us come out of our hiding places. The longer we stay in the hiding place, greater will be our regret in our later years We are better off to choose God as our Hiding Place than to find a hiding place to get away from a loving God.***