Friday – Inside Story: A Gift From the River – Part 1
Bangladesh ~ By Doneshor Tripura
Doneshor was glad to be home, watching his father’s water buffalo. He had been away at school and had just completed his high school graduation exams. The day grew hotter, and Doneshor decided to go for a swim in the nearby river while the buffalo grazed nearby.
Image © Providence Collection from GoodSalt.com
He waded into the cool water, looking for a place that was deep enough to swim. It was the dry season, and the river was much shallower than usual.
Doneshor stood in the waist-deep water and looked upstream. He saw something floating in the water. It wasn’t unusual to find debris in the river, so he wasn’t sure why this object caught his eye. He waited as it bobbed closer to him, then he reached down and picked it out of the water. It was a Bible. He had never seen a Bible before, but instinctively he knew that this was a holy book. He waded ashore and carefully laid the wet book in the sun to dry. As a few pages dried, he turned to a wet page and allowed the sun’s hot rays to dry them.
Doneshor came from a religious family. Every day they worshiped their gods, laying gifts of rice and incense on the altar in their home. Doneshor’s parents had taught him to respect all things holy, and that included the book he had found in the river.
The book wasn’t yet dry when evening came, so Doneshor took it home. The next morning he carried it back to the field and laid it open in the sun. After three days the Bible was dry enough for him to read it. Curious, he turned to the first pages and began reading,In the beginning God created. . . .
Doneshor was fascinated by the account of Creation and the first man and woman. He remembered reading about the first humans in the Gita, the Hindu holy book. An idea struck him, and he began comparing the Gita with the Bible.
One day he read the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples, and contrasted that to his own prayers. I have done nothing but ask and ask, wanting something for myself or my family. Now I understand that Christians pray for others.
As Doneshor continued reading, he discovered a God who searches out and invites people to accept his gift of salvation. This God is patient, and He loves to forgive. Doneshor thought how his entire lifetime had been an effort to earn the favor of the gods by giving them expensive gifts and by making long and tiring pilgrimages to appease them.
To be continued
Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission.
Find more mission stories at www.adventistmission.org
He who would save his life shall lose his life and he who will lose his life for my name’s sake shall find it. Jesus wasn’t giving us an option between saving and losing our life.What I believe he was doing is showing us the Way to life.It is through following him that we got our name,fellow Christian. Heaven is, was and always will be the free gift of his life.To obtain one has to give up the old life and take on the new.It is an abandonment of our own works in the order of faith and a partnership with Christmas where he does the works through our human vessels.
God is so wonderful that He knows how and when to call and reach us for His witnessing.
God has His ways indeed on how to reach us as a missionary again He is God of Love; He created us, we sinned against Him but He is the one again calling out for us Let Him alone be Glorified
May we always show respect for all things holy and have a continual hunger for reading God’s Word despite the length of time we have been Christians. May we quell that hunger by daily reading His Word. Thank God for His indescribable gift.
Christ is the Living Word by which all things were/are created. The works of righteousness which remain even after the fall of man are his works not mine,for without Him I can do nothing. So, “you study the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life, but you do not come to me.”Jesus isn’t a book about himself he comes by us everywhere and at all times through His grace, not because we earned it but because that is how He deals with His fallen creation.The good news is we are hidden from His wrath through Christ’s eternal sacrifice.
Surely God has the perfect timing.