The Invisible Gardener
Stanley asked, "What is the difference between a silent, invisible, intangible gardener and no gardener at all?"
"Easy, one looks after gardens. The other does not." replied Livingston.
Source: 'Theology and Falsification' by Anthony Flew
This exchange aptly describes the case with God. Many of us have never experienced God (literally) in our lives. Not that He will come into your room one night and tell you, "My child, let's have a good talk tonight."
Sometimes I really wish He could guide me. Tell me whether the things that I have done are right or wrong. Whether the journey that I am embarking on is the real path that He has laid down for me.
My faith in His presence was at the lowest when serving in India. When I saw a young girl begging for alms in the middle of the road and day with temperature reaching 41 degrees Celcius, struggling from car to car and with no footwear on, I doubted the presence of God. When I hear stories of 12-14 year old girls who got imprisoned, gang-raped over and over again, so that they would finally succumb to the pimps and become child prostitutes, I wonder where God went to. Why did You allow all these sufferrings? Faith was the thing that I needed most then, but faith was wavering and severely tested too.
Support of a religious outfit will do well then, but I refused to heed the advice of pastors and friends before embarking on these trips.
It took me years to find the answer. Credits go to messengers of God whom I met along the way, who guided me into reaching a peaceful conclusion. Probably I was expecting miracles, that God will, in His booming voice, stop the atrocities that the pimps were committing and punish those involved.
However, on retrospect, God did appear in front of me, albeit in the least expected places: Beside the death bed of a stranger and in a train compartment.
When a few volunteers were gathering by the bedside of a dying man put up in one of Mother Teresa's homes, accompanying the man on his last moments before his passing from tuberculosis, I could witness a deep sense of serenity and peace within him. He was struggling with his breathing, but he did not panic. Tears flowed freely from his eyes, but it was not tears of pain or sadness, but tears of joy and gratitude that there was a group of people who would still hold his hand, stroke his head and accompany him on his last journey on earth. Probably he found God in the image of the volunteers. Death was not a scary aspect for him. Death was beautiful then, for it was home-coming for this man.
When I was stranded on a train alone in a foreign land, not being able to ask for directions due to language differences, God appeared in the image of a government official who was seated next to me, spoke fluent English and was heading in the same direction as mine. To add icing to the cake, he was important enough in the ministry to have a personal chaeffeur who would bring me to my exact location thereafter.
God is beside us all the time. We just need to find a little time, moderate positive thinking and a huge dose of faith to spot Him. The garden is well-tended to afterall.
