An Untouchable |
The last time I was in India I had an experience I will never forget. It was one of those God moments in which He spoke something directly to me. It was our last day in India. It was already about 10 PM and we were on our way to the airport to return to the States.
As we were driving through the very busy streets of Hyderabad I saw people everywhere. There were thousands of people walking, which is quite typical for India. We stopped briefly due to the congested traffic and I caught a glimpse of a little "untouchable" woman sitting on the curb. Just so you will know an "untouchable" is a person from below India's lowest caste level. They are usually street sweepers or latrine cleaners or just jobless. Untouchables. No one else wants anything to do with them. Many live in cardboard boxes, tents, or just roam the streets. Their hope of ever advancing beyond the status of "untouchable" is non-existent. They are literally rejects from society.
Even though there were hundreds of people on that particular section of the street, my eyes fell upon this little elderly woman sitting by herself on the curb. My heart broke for her. I thought to myself, "If she died right there on the street, would anyone even know it?" Right then and there the Holy Spirit said to me, "I would know it!" Obviously I knew if a child of God dies, heaven receives them with joy. But what about an "untouchable", on the streets of Hyderabad, India, which hardly anyone on earth even knows exists? What about this little lady?
What God spoke to me reconfirmed what I already knew...at least in my head, (but not so much in my heart). What is that? No one is insignificant to God! Not even one seemingly "lost in the crowd", untouchable woman on the streets of Hyderabad. When just one person dies and leaves this life without Jesus...God is heart broken.
David said, "For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb." (Psalm 139:13) We learn from David that no person is insignificant. How is that? Think about it. If God formed your inward parts, and wove you in your mother's womb, He knows you very, very well. In fact, He knows you better than anyone else knows you! You are very special to Him. You are extremely significant to Him. Don't allow the enemy to convince you that you are insignificant to God. That of course, is a lie!
God said to Jeremiah, the prophet, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations." That's extreme significance. God already knew Jeremiah, and had chosen Him to be a mighty prophet...before He even formed Him in his mother's womb! Jeremiah is no exception. God has known you, chosen you, and appointed you to an incredible future and a hope. (Also see Jeremiah 29:11) Because He has a destiny for you...you have extreme significance. Your part is to believe it and thus, act like you believe it! Did I mention your part is to believe it and act like you believe it? Just checking.
There is no circumstance you face, no need you have, no struggle, no strength, no weakness, no opposition facing you that is not important to God. Know why? You have extreme significance. It's all because He loves you with an everlasting love. He loves you so much He sent Jesus to die for you over two thousand years ago. Yes, you were not around back then, but the God who created you had already known you, chosen you, and planned your destiny! He's just that great, and you're just that significant! That's extreme significance!
Untouchable By Mulk Raj Anand Anand conveys precisely, with urgency and barely disguised fury, what it might feel like to be one of India's Untouchables. Bakha is a young man, a proud and even an attractive young man, but none the less he is an outcast in a system that is now only slowly changing and was then as cruel and debilitating as that of apartheid. Into this re-creation of one day in the life of Bakha, sweeper and latrine-cleaner, Anand poured a vitality, fire and richness of detail that have caused him to be acclaimed as his country's Charles Dickens as well as this century's greatest revealer of the "other" India. |
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