Tuesday, November 1, 2011

What a Friend We Have in Jesus!

A little something from my life this week that I felt inspired to share in this blog:

Roshan is now on an official trip to Amsterdam, and two days after he left, my son Daniel came down with fever and a few episodes of vomiting. The vomiting subsided soon, and I continued paracetamol for the fever. My prayer during the fever was that Jesus will be with him, comfort him and enlighten me to take care of him the right way. I didn’t pray that the fever would go away altogether – because, as we know, these sicknesses are all part of our life. He is there to comfort us, and that’s all we need; and I knew He will bring healing at the right time.

But at night, Daniel’s temperature didn’t come down much with the paracetamol – so I stayed up in bed all night, constantly feeling his hot forehead and giving him wet sponges to cool him down till it was time for the next dose. When it was time for a dose of Calpol around 4am, I was feeling very sleepy and tired – so I told Jesus:
‘OK - with this dose, you HAVE TO bring the temperature down. I am too tired to sit up now. I am going to give him the medicine, and go right to sleep – won’t even feel his temperature till I wake up next – so you BETTER do this.’ :)

And I gave Daniel the Calpol, making the sign of the cross on the forehead, and went to sleep - just like I had told Jesus. I could fall asleep easily because I really trusted He would do what I asked for. I woke up after 2 hours, and felt his forehead – it was completely cool, and I smiled to myself and said ‘thank you!’.

The next day, after Daniel was all better, I told Rachel (11 yrs) and Daniel (7 yrs) exactly what I had told Jesus, and they were surprised and amused. They giggled and laughed, and said ‘Can’t believe you talked to Jesus like that!’

We had a beautiful conversation on this then – and that’s what I wanted to share, to show how the Holy Spirit guided my words, so that the children were able to relate to the situation, and understand how Jesus can truly be our friend:

They said,
‘You must be joking – did you really say that? - In that tone, ‘BETTER do it…’ and ‘HAVE TO’..?’
‘Isn’t that quite rude, to talk to Jesus like that..?’
‘Why didn’t you speak politely?’ :)

I told them : I do have a DEEP love and respect and reverence for Jesus, but at the same time, I have a wonderful friendship with Him also – so I feel free to talk like that to Him. And I’m sure He enjoys that too, - see how readily he answered my request? Rather than just seeing Him as a God seated up in the heaven, Jesus really longs to be part of our lives, and He is waiting for us to share our everyday things with Him . And when we start doing that, we will thoroughly enjoy it and our friendship becomes even stronger…. We can go to Him and talk to Him just as we are – happy, sad, angry, sleepy – whatever.

And I told them that they could also train themselves to talk to Jesus everyday, so they would also come to enjoy this wonderful relationship.

Just a few hours before that Rachel had come to me all upset and almost in tears, saying how difficult she was finding it to learn a Hindi story that she had to… So connecting it with this, I told her: instead of just asking Jesus to help you learn it, talk to Him about it – just like you talked to me; and He will give you His words of comfort, and enlighten your mind as to how to handle it.

I could see that the children were really able to understand what I said, and were able to get an idea about the friendship I was talking about.

At the end of it, Daniel giggled again, saying, ‘Amme, but next time you talk to Jesus, speak just a bit more nicely’ !! :)

I am reminded of the song,
‘What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!’

And I realized how important it is to keep talking to our children about Jesus and help them befriend Him, so they can enjoy His presence to the fullest in their little lives - let's help them discover their True Friend!

Thank you, Jesus!
Lucy

4 comments:

alphy said...

thanks chechi for reminding me that apart from being our most loving and awesome God, Jesus is also a great friend longing to talk to us and interact just like our friends does.
Many a times in the daily hustles and bustles of our lives instead of clinging on to him, we are tend to behave very seriously with him.
Hmm.. let me befriend him right now.
Background music plsss........

And lo I am reminded of that hindi song from the movie 'HUM' but let me give it a small (JY) twist..and it goes-
"ek doosre se karte hain pyar hum, ek doosre ke liye bekaraar hum,
YESHU KRIST ke vaaste marna pade toh, hain taiyyaar hum- JESUSYOUTH JESUSYOUTH!!!!


thank you dosth for this wonderful sharing and helping me to discover a 'badiya dosth' in my God.

Jacob Jose said...

Very nice Lucy chechy. He said I no longer call you servants but friends. Jn 15:15. Jesus is the son of God so are we though him:) He is our elder brother. We can be ourselves with him

Jolly said...

Beautiful! In our regular prayers, we often cry out to Jesus for forgiveness and salvation, but rarely do we realise that we need to reciprocate to His love, which is posible only by befriending Him :)

Thomson said...

Your article reminded me about this book. Gabrielle Bossis wrote "He and I" which consists of her personal interaction with Jesus. Once Jesus said to her:

"You sometimes thank Me more for My temporal blessings than for My spiritual favors. I am always in both of them. But aren't the spiritual ones more choice? Isn't it as though I invited an intimate friend into My home to show her more kindness and share some of the secrets of My heart with her? You love to pour out your heart to someone who loves you truly. And because I am God, shouldn't I have the joy of a heart-to-heart talk?


http://www.mysticsofthechurch.com/2009/11/gabrielle-bossis-he-and-i.html