#108 Serendipity at Okavango(22sep06)

http://www.okavango-delta.net/info.htm

Dear...

'Beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage'
Deuteronomy 6:12

In my younger heathen days, growing up in Singapore in the 1960s and 1970s, a common sight in most Chinese households were the altar that takes pride of place, be it the tablets to our deceased grandparents, or whichever gods that our parents deemed essential for the family's well-being.

Most of our parents then were illiterate to semi-literate and ancestor worship was for most, the closest to a spiritual mindset, interpersed with a combination of Taoism, Buddhism and even possibly, Confucianism.
This laissez faire attitude is not new, it has its roots in the hallowed grounds of the great Emperors of China, where palace intrigue and the need to consolidate powers ensured that in almost every ensuing change of leadership, the new Emperor(and on rare occasions, Empress) will give greater credence to whichever will help him consolidate his powers, be it Taoism, Buddhism or Confucianism.

'And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What means the testimonies and statutes, and the judgements, which the Lord our God hath commanded you, then thou shalt say unto thy son......'
Deuteronomy 6:20-25

Possibly for most of those my generation, in our formative years, we often ended up confused, indifferent and mainly atheists. thankfully, many have now come to know the Lord our God and have taken up the mantle of being the 1st or at most 2nd generation Christians in their family.

Contrast this to the prosperous but increasingly secular Western nations, whose forefathers were grounded firmly on the Christian faith, but for many in the recent generations, their Christian background has become at best a decorative wallpaper, to their hedonistic worship of self and self only.

Like its origins from a Persian fairy tale, the word serendipity might best describe the perception that most would have with regards to the gods that our parents(usually the mothers and grandmothers) pay obeisance to. It must be due to some accidental discovery of the efficacy of such gods passed on from our ancestors, something that no one really understands nor remember, but carries on as tradition.

'..in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them'
2 Corinthians 4:3-4

As believers of Jesus Christ and God, we are blessed to have the love of God pierced through the darkness of our world and the veil of blindness lifted from our hearts.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we are certain of where we will be going.

Our knowing God is no accident, it is His will that all must know Him.

'And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations and the the end will come'
Matthew 24:14


But what about our children??
- as 2nd generation Christians, they know who Jesus Christ is, who God is, but do they truly know God??

'.....because he humbleth himself before Me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house'
1 Kings 2:29

The Okavango Delta in Botswana, Africa is a phenomenon of nature and while not a perfect analogy, prayerfully, it will give us all an insight of what it means to trust the Lord.

It is an oasis upon which a vast array of animal and plant life is dependent upon. It is a place in the midst of the dry Kalahari desert, reduced to puddles of water in some spots, during the dry season, but with the onset of the rainy season, it becomes a vast lake(over 16000sq km) teeming with life as the long suffering and parched animals descend upon this spring of life.

Eventually, 95% of the waters onflow into the great Kalahari desert, the land becomes almost arid again, reduced to a mere 9000 sq km, only to restart the whole process as God opens up the Heavens to water its parched land.

Life for many of us are no different from the oft repeated work of nature in this wonderful nature reserve.
We have our times of plenty, and our times of scarcities, not just in material,but in whole myriad of our life's experiences.
For the more materially enriched, many try to cling on to their burdensome riches, either taking the view that just like the endlessly thirsty Kalahari Desert, there is never enough to satisfy the teeming masses, why waste it by sharing or why should I, only to realize that like the richly watered Okavango Delta, nature will take its natural course, and much as we hope to, we can never hang on to our worldly possessions to eternity.

'....what will be the sign of Your coming, and the end of the age?'
Matthew 24:3

Man has and can often disrupt the orderly flow of God's wonderful handiwork by their sinful disobedience, often to disastrous proportions.
Today, there is the possibility of one of the African governments damming the highlands, the starting point from which the rains are carried down to eventually fill up this Delta.
The way of life will change if this happens, and the long taken for granted ebbs and flows of life at the Delta will be changed forever.

For us humans, we are not masters of our destiny, much as some might think otherwise. Even the Emperor has to die. Immortality in man's secular world is a dream, not a reality. And legacy is at best consigned to the history books

Yet, it need not be this way, for Eternity in the kingdom of God is a reality and this lie that we all live with, that our existence is finite, from point of birth to point of departure and lets maximise our time and prayerfully not sinfulness before we disappear into the great unknown, and let the cycle be repeated by our children who will carry the torch of humanity, will not last forever, for Jesus Christ will return, our present world will end and all who believe and are faithful will have eternal life the Kingdom of God.

For those who chose otherwise, eternity is also yours, difference is, if the Bible is to be believed(and I do), then the place where the unbelievers go to to have a tete-a-tete with the devil, will make the harsh and arid Kalahari Desert seem like a Sunday picnic.

God Blesses

Eng Hieang