JESUS, PLEASE LEAVE US!

Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. Mark 5:17

Tonight, when Mark chapter 5 was the Bible reading portion in our family prayer, Jesus spoke to me through this verse. This Biblical event is well-known to us (Mark 5 : 1 - 20). Jesus droves the many demons in a man among the two thousand pigs. When those that tending the pigs reported this to the town, the people came and began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. This people of Decapolis were more concerned about the pigs and were afraid what more of this sort may happen if Jesus would enter their town. Remember, Jesus has not yet entered the town as this man met Jesus no sooner He got out of the boat. They were mindful of the worldly things than Jesus and His blessings. Only in the previous chapter, we find Jesus quoting Isaiah 6 : 9, 10 "they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!" and this comes true in the very next chapter. The people of Decapolis just heard what Jesus had done but they never understood why. They saw what was the outcome of Jesus' actions but still they never perceived. I'm sure that their eyes were blind and ears were deaf because they hearts were set to the pigs/worldly things.

I do find many among us pleading Jesus to leave us, may be not literally but by indirectly thru setting our hearts to the pigs. What is that our heart is seeking to, the pigs or Jesus?

The Shepherd's Love

We had a Labrador Retriever dog named Scooby. It's not a pure breed as it had an Alsatian origin. When it was small, we had no problems but as it grew it started behaving differently. When we reached a point that we could no longer handle it, we decided to dump the dog so that anyone else could maintain it and the responsibility fell on me. I did not have much liking for this dog particularly as it never liked me except to take it for walking. One Saturday morning, I decided to leave the dog at the nearby Veterinary Hospital. I took Scooby for a kilometre walk around 6 AM in the morning. All the way long, many stray dogs were barking at Scooby and it was quite frightened. It stuck to me. When I took Scooby inside the hospital, there were other dogs in the In-Patient were howling horribly and Scooby was real scared that it clung to my feet. It was the first time it did that to me. Inside the hospital was a play field where some people were playing a football match. I sat to watch the match. Since Scooby didn't want to watch the match, it was trying to roam around so I loosened the chain and let it to roam free. When it went far away, I called it and it came to me. It licked my hand and was found most of the time around my feet all those two hours. Even I go somewhere around the field, it would follow me and saw to it that I was in sight and that I never left it or abandon it.

When the time came for me to give the dog, I felt very bad. Even though I did not like the dog so much neither the dog liked me, within a couple of hours we became good friends and the immediate separation and that too forever, haunted me. I said "Scooby, I'm really sorry for doing this" and gave it and left the place as quick as possible. All thru the way home, I was praying to God to take good care of it and I really felt very bad to dump it. I did not eat my breakfast and did not eat much of lunch as well because my heart was heavy. Usually when I'm depressed, I would try to get sleep so that my brain will not be thinking about the cause for the desperation. I slept in the afternoon, but in my dreams all that came were dogs abandoned by me. Some were angry that I ditched it. I woke up then.

Later that night, I had to go pass thru the Veterinary hospital road. While crossing it, I was thinking what will the dog be doing now? Would someone have fed it, provided good shelter? My heart was no better. Before going to sleep that night, I prayed to God for its security and safety.

I was trying to forget all this, thru the weekend but on the following Monday morning, when I was bathing, God brought this incident to my mind and spoke to me: "Son, you are that Scooby. Whenever you were not under my control, you were arrogant. You went your own way. You never paid attention to my voice. Whatever you thought was right, you did it. You even looked down on me like Scooby did to you. However, when trouble came in form of stray dogs and the horrible howling of the other dogs, Scooby came under your shelter and never left your feet. Similarly, I allowed troubles, problems and failures so that you would come to me, come under my shelter and providence so you would constantly be under my reigning. The feeling you had when you dumped the dog is the same feeling I have when you go out of my way, when you don't obey my voice. I was longing for you to come to me. And I will not rest until I have you."

Only then I realized that all these happened for me to know about the wonderful love, the Shepherd's Love.