WIELDING OF SWORD
When bus reached Thiruvadavur Omar took them home. First the other two entered the house and Omar last. Front rectangular portion of the building was used as the clinic. At one end of the clinic is dad’s table and chair; he looked angrily at them as they entered the house. On the opposite end was a cot where Omar sat with his head down. Pastor Johnson and uncle sat on the chairs in front of dad on either sides of the room. Johnson inquired about his welfare which he ignored completely and started to rebuke Omar. Hearing the noise mom came and stood behind the door hiding herself. Her face was swollen and hair was not combed; Omar understood that dad had beaten her severely. Mom didn’t talk to anybody and nobody talked to her due to fear for dad. Johnson tried to calm down dad, but of no avail. His anger grew every moment, even his voice raised saying, "Do these ungrateful people realise how much I loved them and earned hard to give them comfortable life?... how much I spent for his college education?.. what happened in the end?....they all betrayed me! They became Christians...an unforgivable sin. This traitor (pointing at Omar) separated his own dad and mom" and in flash of a second he reached his hand to bottom of the safety bureau, took out the knife and ran towards Omar shouting, "You must not live!". He was only couple of feet away from him with the knife in his raised arm over Omar's head. Both his uncle and pastor were stunned, raced towards his dad, grabbed around his waist, pulled him away from Omar and seized the knife from him. His dad again ran towards Omar, slapped him hard on the left ear and spat on his face. Once more his uncle and pastor interfered; he returned to his seat scolding him. This went on for hours and in-between pastor tried to calm him down. Looking at these things mom silently wept. Dad shouted that Omar must not be anywhere in his sight; Omar went quickly to the next room where he saw his mom, Saleem, Ayub and his aunt but they didn’t dare to talk to each other. Situation was the same the whole day. In the night uncle, pastor and Omar slept in an adjacent room. Omar was not able to close his eyes even for a minute and kept on praying to God. He thought that soon his uncle, aunt and pastor will go away and then who will stop if something bad happens. How to spend even a day with dad who wants to kill them all?....is there anyone who can save them?.....God is their only refuge. Even if we live in this world or die as martyr for His sake.....let God’s name alone be glorified. Bible says....we are being killed every day for his namesake and we are considered like a sheep that is prepared for slaughter. Even if all these things happen the God’s word declares, "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, not any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" ....further it promises, "...all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28,38,39). Jesus Christ suffered so much.....they mocked at Him and put to shame....still He obeyed the will of the Father.....He gave himself like a sheep given for slaughter.....now in these things happening in our lives, we must yield to the will of the Father. Jesus tells, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life for mysake, the same shall save it" (Luke 0:24). So far we have come through this path of trials.....now it is at its peak.....God’s strength and power of the Holy Spirit which sustained us so far will do so even now.
His grace will protect us from running away from this faith.....the very grace filled us with the peace of God even when we were about to face death. We must consider ourselves blessed as God has chosen us to suffer for Him. Jesus warned, "If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you" (John 15:18) and if there is so much suffering for a live tree, how much more will it be for a dead one. Omar’s thoughts rolled one after another and the night passed in silent prayer without any sleep.
Next day morning things were not much different. When dad was not home they talked with each other. Pastor told mom, "Sister! There is no point in me staying here, because he does not allow me to tell gospel. He insists it’s a big mistake that you all became Christians". Mom pointed out sadly, "Yes brother! This is the first time you talked to him...now you know his nature....you can tell the missionaries about him". Omar added that nobody can talk to dad. Johnson decided to return to Kodaikanal. Omar urged him to stay a little longer so that it will be support for them. Johnson reasoned that his uncle and aunt will be staying some more time and that he had some important work in Kodaikanal. One or two days later Johnson left. Uncle and aunt also departed after few days.