The Scattered Missionaries

Prof. Elias Abraham

Prof. Elias Abraham, formerly of Chengannur Christian College, Faculty of English, currently serves as a member of the Editorial Board of The Messenger, a publication of the Diocese of North America and Europe of the Mar Thoma Church. He writes poetry and is a recipient of Editor's Choice Award by the National Library of Poetry, USA.

Wake up my friends, and praise the Lord of lords!

For we are nothing, and from nothingness we come It's our God, who is the God, who gave us life, and salvation from the bondage from eons. Being healthy, one is akin to progress, and under the wings of the mightiest be protected. The music of the bugles makes the flowers smile, the weeping clouds slowly settle for their sleep, while men hastily engage in their daily work, thinking their tidings to be true.

In this alien land, our tears our tomorrows strengthen, soothe our hearts and minds to settle in peace. I see a rainbow at the far end of the firmament, splendor and charm adorn the hearts and minds, to be the valiant victors in an ethereal existence. Here's Oh! God, our savior, for You we proffer the grandest gifts we carried from our native lands, for while our sweats did soak the earth we tilled, and in dismay our eyes blinded in anguish, You heard our cries and said in unequivocal tone, “Fear not, I am with you.” This voice from above built our dreams, empowered our visions, and made our hearts resolute and strong, in hope's golden wings we flew, and dreamed of unknown conquests day by day.

With tearful hearts that softly sob, we say, we come from a land of dreams, where they sleep and sometimes wake, where we often hear the singing rivers, and the chirping birds, and guests of night, where in midnight rains many dreams are born, God-blessed land where Jesus' disciple lived, and sowed the seeds of Christendom, to flower, and spread glory's fragrance. But alas! Things are changed, it's drag race, o'er there!

We were homesick, and thirsted for a return, but days passed by to reach nowhere! Had Columbus felt this and gone through the pang of the soul in the nightly sleeps?

The mind slowly said, ' We are in a sojourn, the day will come for us to get healed.' Weeping, yet calming down by force of will, we lived in the alien land while sun shines made meaningful marks on our lifestyles. Like Naomi, with nostalgic pains asking questions to the worried self with doubts that never end and stabs that never heal, we stood in the unknown land in moods of mystery entwined in stories strange.

Many with dreams come and exist, becoming part of the great design, battling with courage to seek faith in a heartless world that in flippancy, and dire competition finds satiation. Because this world is a commonwealth, don't we have the right to relocate, and establish existence anywhere with willingness to love and be the part of a universal truth of brotherhood? Backbreaking work charioted by motivation made us what we are today. Our churches do tell us stories of our rise in the general plan with the divine wisdom guiding us. New identities were carved in us to better serve ourselves and society. New horizons every day we embark, remapping the faith life, we cherish. Traditions we do need, to carry on, without doubt, the divine truth. Why do we argue and quarrel while shutting our eardrums in haste, and without reason play the false tunes? Isn't it true that one will be known not by what wealth one amassed, not the power, or position, or rise, but by the love and compassion one expressed to the fellow humans?

Even today, like our forefathers did, many, ' sitting by the rivers of Babylon,' are 'weeping and remembering their Zions.' Millions, to utter frankly, do happily conquer their golden horizons day by day! Dispersion has occurred, we're Diasporas. We are 'scattered missionaries.' Are we steadfast in the Lord we serve like the warriors standing their ground in the midnight peril of the darkest gloom