Seekers

The image on the introduction page of this post haunts me.

This scene is on the west bank of the Ganges River in Varanasi, India.  I took the picture on my first mission trip to India with Reach the Rest Ministries.  The little building is a Hindu shrine.  It is a beautiful picture with the bright colors, curious dog buddies, and the man under the orange scarf sitting on the concrete block with the lunch bucket nearby.

I do not know the meaning of the Hindi word written on the front of the block but I guess it means something like; I am searching for a revelation from God; A revelation that would make clear all the confusion of this life and set me apart to be admired as a spiritual man of a god.  (I use the lower case “g” for their gods because the Hindi have upwards of thirty-three thousand gods.)

I wonder if he eats his lunch under the scarf.  How hot does it get under there?  Does he fall asleep sitting up?

Perhaps I shouldn’t ask such questions.  I do not want to insult him.  There is one thing I do admire about him. Evident from his setting, he is seeking. His presence there in front of a shrine on the bank of the Ganges says he is hungry for something outside himself.  He knows he is lacking some vital part of life.  He is seeking spiritual enlightenment. He won’t find it under that orange scarf. 

I feel a sort of kinship with this man.  I too am a seeker.  I long to see and hear not from a god but from a particular  God: THE True Creator God.  I am incomplete without him.  I am void of wisdom and insight within myself.  The absurdity of life is overwhelming and oppressive without a continual flow of certainty from God.

I respond to the two pictures in many ways but I have two reoccurring thoughts. I praise my Father for choosing to reveal himself to this man and to me by becoming a man and living among us as one of us. Father, will this seeking man ever have the opportunity to hear clearly the Gospel message?  His hunger to find you was created by you?  Will he discover that you are seeking him?