From the ashes

It is still raining in Thane. The drains continue to overflow.

I recently saw a horrible sight.

An elderly man, stripped down, going down into the drain. Similar to the picture of the man on the right.

This old man was pulling out the blackest filth - stuff that had been clogging up the storm sewers.

He was totally caked with the filth that had accumulated there. Manually pulling out the tar-black pieces of garbage that had clogged up what was a large sewer. Right at the main gate of the housing complex we live in.

Who he was I do not know.

But he is part of what continues to be an inescapable part of our society - people who will do things no one else will - because there is some money to be earned in it.
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This is being written on a day when the victorious T20 World-Cup-winning Indian cricket team was rapturously welcomed in Mumbai. An open top bus parade. All the notables and quotables in the city were there. Money flowed. A luxury house for each member. Crores of Rupees as prizes. The endorsements to come are unimaginable.
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This is being written on a day when the Mumbai stock market's Sensex has crossed the 17,000 barrier. Higher than ever before. More than ever imaginable in the bad old Indira Gandhi 'socialist' days of my youth.
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And here in Thane (and many other parts of our great and sad country) we have elderly men making little piles of filth which they have fished out from deep in the gutter.
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The Bible has a totally awe-inspiring take on this.

He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
He seats them with princes,
with the princes of their people.
- Psalm 113:7-8

Do we dare believe this?

That in God's economy a man covered with filth may actually end up ruling the nations?

That the simplest believer in our Lord Jesus will be seated on the throne of glory with God Himself - through out the ages - and will be reigning with Christ?

Its hard to imagine. No, its basically impossible to imagine. We are too earth-bound in our thoughts.

But that's what scripture tells us.

Oh that we would live our life trully believing this. How different our interactions with each other will be.

Lets do it!