Watermelons and faith

Summer season is here and watermelons in sight. Watermelons should inspire us. Have you ever wondered at the power of a watermelon seed? It has the potential of drawing from the earth and through itself 2 lakh times its own weight! Amazing are the colourful designs formed on the outside surface, something beyond the imitation of art. The white rind within and the red thick inlay studded with black seeds are admirable.

Each melon seed must lose itself into the ground if it has to bear much fruit. The Faith process is similar. Faith is to lose or immerse ourselves completely in the hands of God allowing Him to shape us into something beautiful.

The breaking process is painful but momentary as God opens up situations we thought impossible. It is from broken clouds we have rain, from broken wheat we get our bread. Unless we surrender ourselves like clay in a potter's hands or a piece of rock in a sculptor's hands we can never experience new shape to our lives. The best way to handle life is to put our life in the hands of God.

Jesus exhorts us to have Faith to see the impossible "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, "Move from here to there, and it would move. Nothing would be impossible." (Mathew 17:20) "Faith is to be sure of the things we hope for and to be certain of the things we cannot see" (Hebrews 11:1).

Life's journey is wrought with many challenging and painful situations. But God calls us to surrender ourselves in Him. Saint Augustine says "If sorrow makes you shed tears, then faith in the promises of God makes us dry them."

When you find it hard to have Faith in God especially when there is darkness in our life, look at the chicks under the wings of the hen. There is darkness around them, but they know that they are safe under the shelter of their mother's wings. It was by Faith that Noah, Abraham, Sarah, saw inexhaustible possibilities in God (Hebrews 11). The scriptures emphasise "For with God all things are possible." (Mathew 19:26).

Faith in God sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible.