Have you ever thought about the stuff you “automatically” inherit depending on which home you're born in?
The first thing that strikes me is the family name, and in some places the names of your district, village and street as well. And, of course, your first name - nobody asked you if you'd rather be called Madonna instead of Mona, or Prince Julien instead of Rahul - You're just branded with a name at birth, like they brand cattle, and you have your whole life to come to terms with it.
Well, of course you can file an affidavit and change your name if you really loathe it, but it’s too much of an effort, and given the pace of things around here - I’d rather just make my peace with Divya, Esther and Michelle, who are not three different people by the way! (Jokes, I love my name – but you get the drift, right?)
Okay, then how about looks, blood type and temperament? Yes, cheekbones like mama and temper like dad. My mom throws that at me sometimes – “You’ve got all your father's messy habits!”
Then, there may be daddy's stored up money, the family business or the ancestral house in Ooti? Or, alternatively, there’s the chance to start from scratch.
And, relatives! I’m sure you’ve heard this one before – you can choose your friends but not your relatives. If you’ve got some meddling and troublemaking aunties and uncles, then you’ll probably get the sentiment behind this statement.
There are heaps of other things, right from priceless heirlooms or looming debts passed down from one generation to the next, to patriarchal attitudes of "arrey, it's not a man's job to help in the kitchen" and lifestyle choices like “no non-veg, except fish and eggs please!”.
The list can go on, but there is one uneasy addition that I find hard to digest – the default inheriting of God. So, which family I am born in determines whether I know God or not, and what my faith should look like? Doesn’t something sound off here?
Hmmm... Does one just “stumble upon” God as one does on whacky, fun stuff on the namesake website? Would you really like to think of God as a mute, unseeing, voiceless being who can be passed down generations as if he was an antique, but of course somewhat valuable, chest of drawers?
I don’t dare to think of God as anything less than perfect, sovereign, uncreated, mysterious, righteous, and all-powerful. If God was anything less than that – an old patriarch who has lost the plot, a puppet head of a nation, or the deputy so-and-so; if He was just the God of a few - people of a certain colour, language or race; or if He was in anyway, not perfect – just a little corrupt, sometimes moody, or easy to flatter – I don’t think I’d be able to worship Him. Would you really like to worship a God like that? I seriously have my doubts.
In his life-altering volumes, Attributes of God, scholar A.W. Tozer talks about how God is beyond time and space, uncreated and unchanging, and about his perfect goodness and holiness. There is nothing that you could add or subtract from God’s attributes to make him any more perfect.
He isn’t just some vague idea, or a whim that you can just “stumble upon” or be sweet talked into believing. Nah, not the God that I know. Each man has to search and unravel a little big of God's mystery for himself. And, more importantly, it is a choice that he needs to make for himself. Jesus said to the crowd, "IF anyone would come after me..." (Matthew 16:24). It is your faith, not your father’s, and your choice, not your family's that will take you anywhere with God.
It’s never too late to make intentional choices and to start asking some important questions; it’s an open invitation for everybody and anybody, no matter which home you’re born in – Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. (Psalm 34:8)
