Mommy Dearest

I just feel like writing about my family, I'll start with my mom. I met her first you know :)
My mom's name is Esther. She is an amazing woman and exactly like Esther from the Bible, I'd say. In your very first meeting with her, you'd immediately notice her magnetic personality, extremely friendly nature and an open heart to welcome one and all. Nothing godly though.

When we were young, dad taught us to pray and the one thing he always told us was "Whether you learn anything else in life or not, you must know Jesus". In India in our home we call Jesus "Yeshu baba" meaning:" Jesus our daddy". Dad taught us all that, being very diligent in going to church and never missing a single sunday. Boy did we get a lecture from dad if we didn't go one Sunday for an illogical reason, like "Our friends are not coming" or something like that. I don't remember mom insisting on such, though she did, on those sundays when dad had to go to another city for work.

I remember, once when we were going to Calcutta by a local train from our station. It was a 5 hours journey and there were many people on the train. The train had put us all in the rhythm of its movement and I had dozed off. After a while I woke up with the sound of my mom talking to someone in whatever broken Bengali (language) she knew. She was talking to another lady about Jesus!!! I was shocked, I thought that lady's husband would scold my mother if she went on like that, but he didn't, they both listened attentively. In the end the lady said she would pray to Jesus for some situation she was going through. She infact asked my mom if she had something she could read. Mom didn't have any, but she gave her some idea of how to pray. My mother then sat silently as if nothing happened and that woman looked hopeful as if something had happened. That was amazing.

Another time, me and my mom were going to our local market in Jamshedpur by an auto. You can share the ride with someone else too. A man got into the auto. He was a non-Christian man and didn't from any angle look like he'd ever want to hear about Jesus. We had bought some calendars for the New Year and these calendars have Bible verses for each and every day. They are made at Hebron, in Hyderabad.

"What are those papers you're carrying, are they calendars?", he asked.

"Yes they are christian calendars, we got from church", mom replied.

"They look very nice, how can I get one?", he asked further.

Mom replied," You can't get them in shops", "it has verses from the Bible and it encourages and blesses, if you read it every day with prayer", she added.

To my shock, the man said," I'd like one of those calendars".

Mom gave one to him and when he asked what he should do with it, she explained how to pray and that man was so grateful. She of course didn't take any money from him.

The rest of the way, everyone was quiet and I was amazed and adored my mom for her brave manner of sharing God's Word with a Hindu man. Its not easy to share like this, they rarely ask and if they do, and if we answer anything about Jesus, be sure some one is going to get hurt and it would mostly be the believer.

I am so blessed to have a wonderful mom like her. Hope I'd be able to be like her to my children.