Skip to main content

Coming "home"

This is our third day in Goa. Coming "home" to the land of my birth is somehow compelling and always interesting. Childishly I want to come back to what I left and of course it is not the same.The things that have not changed (aka the things that I love!!)

  • Waking up to the sounds of the cawing of the crows, the cuckoo and the familiar horn of the poder (breadman), He does use a motorised bike now instead of a cycle but the horn is the same.
  • The familiar foliage of the sweet smelling champak, the mogra, the tulsi and the swaying coconut palms.
  • The sosegad (easy going, chill, lazy, happy go lucky, whatever...) Goan
  • The almost overwhelming hospitality of family and friends.
  • The constant unstoppable breaking of the waves on the beautiful shoreline of Goa. Reminds me of God speaking in Job 38:
    • Who shut up the sea behind doors ... when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place,  when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’
The things that have changed (aka the things that I do not like!!)
  • The culture - the very essence and hear of what it means to be a Goan. 
  • The crowds that come with enhanced tourism and the dirt and garbage that they leave behind. 
  • The crass materialism that seems to be an appendage to tourism and development. 
I am happy to be back ...of course but in many ways sad and nostalgic. These days I call Toronto my home and I love it. It is where I want to live and have made a choice to be and I believe where God meant me to be at this time. I am content till ...the call come to go back to Goa for a visit...

This morning I got to be seriously thinking of my permanent home. The book of Revelation in chapter 21 has a description, a foretaste of what it will look like. The foundations will be decorated with precious stones and the streets made of pure gold, Most of all it will be lit by the glory of God. nothing impure will enter it.
By the simple act of faith of accepting Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, I am guaranteed a place in this eternal home. With this hope firmly entrenched in my mind, I will go ahead and enjoy the rest of my stay here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Joy comes with the morning." Psalm 30

"You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!" Three days after Julius went home to the Lord, God had given me a promise. He had spoken to me from Psalm 77. Just like He had moved the nation of Israel, He was going to make a way through the deep waters of suffering that I was in. A way that I could not see, a way that I had to trust. I had to make a choice to move forward and believe that the waters would not drown me. (Is 43:2).  I had to believe Him. It is one year and 9 months and there are days even now when the waters seem to overwhelm and there are days when I see a glimpse of the path ahead. Through the prophet Isaiah He says: 'Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness...
5 comments
Read more

A Letter to My Grandson on His First Birthday

  My darling Baby D, Today is the twentieth anniversary of an event that changed the world forever.  This event that we call 9/11 is in your history books but it is a reality that I share with you. So much more has happened to this world since then. 2020 was the year of the pandemic - this time your reality more than mine. You actually got the dreaded covid bug. It has been a year and some of isolation, masks, vaccines and fear all around us.  Each new day makes our reality uncertain and changing all the time. And yet for me this is a day of hope. 9/11 of 2020 is what I will call it. I had prayed for over five years - sometimes fervently, sometimes desperately, sometimes, honestly not at all. I often got tired of waiting but my weak faith was not going to stop God’s plan.  A year has gone by and I have watched you grow from the tiny fragile little baby, to a  boy who cannot sit still. Oh what joy you bring to my heart. I love your welcome at the condo and yo...
2 comments
Read more

Thankful

Another first... Last year we had my Papa and Julius at the dinner table. Couple of weeks later my Dad passed away - slipped away in his sleep. Six months later Julius was gone to heaven. To be honest I have asked God "What are you thinking God?" "How do you expect me to move on with so much loss and grief?" And "What is coming next?" I confess that none of these questions are answered because they are not worthy to be asked. God is Sovereign, He is Creator and He is in control and I am so comforted by His Word. In the book of Job I read: But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back?      What he desires, that he does. 14  For he will complete what he appoints for me,      and many such things are in his mind . Job 23:13-14. And again in Lamentations 3 For the Lord will not cast off forever, 32  but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love;  33  for he doe...
3 comments
Read more