O! Ranjit, My Son

This poem was written by Ranjit's Mother's Sister Mrs. Anbu Samraj for Ranjit's Memorial Service on 21st August, 2010. In this poem she thinks through Ranjit's mind to write a poem like Ranjit would have written. She was with Ranjit when he wrote the poem "Mother, oh my mother dear".

O! Ranjit, My Son


“Twenty First” May, Nineteen Fifty
A flower blossomed in “Dawson’s tree”


I don’t know about your school days
You’re a loving child everyone says


You never hurt anybody’s feelings
So gracious you’re in your dealings


Your love to church freely flowing
And to “I.M.S.” over - flowing


I fail to understand God’s mystery
Which ended up your precious history


The church was your worship place
And here only you ended your race


18th August, Two Thousand Ten
You left us all, to be in “Heaven”

This is a poem that my brother-in-law Ranjit wrote for the memorial service of his mother Hephzibah Devadason who passed away on 27th December, 1996.

Mother, oh my mother dear

1. 
   
   
   Mother, oh my mother dear
   You were always very near
   As I spent this whole year
   Without worry or any fear
   
2. 
   
   
   As the days draw near
   I’m really beginning to fear
   Without you, mother dear
   How’d be the coming year?
   
3. 
   
   
   Mother, you spent your whole life
   As my father’s loving wife
   Your love to children freely flowing
   And to grandchildren overflowing
   
4. 
   
   
   Sharing with others was your nature
   Caring was in your blood, I’m sure
   You were of a different kind
   Loving, honest and being kind
   
5. 
   
   
   Be it Charles or Motilal
   You were like a mother to all
   This Church was your worship place
   And here only you ended your race
   
6. 
   
   
   Thirty eight years in DTEA School
   You didn’t lose your patience or cool
   The whole lot of the teaching crowd
   For you mother, is feeling proud
   
7. 
   
   
   Your neighbours talk so high of you
   For me, it is nothing new
   You were like an Onida TV
   Owner’s pride & neighbours envy
   
8. 
   
   
   You spent Christmas in good cheer
   With family in my house this year
   But in the same night, mother dear
   You made us all stand in tear
   
9. 
   
   
   You were put in ICU
   But I hardly could see you
   The doctors couldn’t locate your vein
   The prayers & medicines went in vain
   
10. 
    
    
    I gave you water and my blood
    Why did the doctors pronounce you dead
    I fail to understand this mystery
    Which ended your precious history
    
11. 
    
    
    Yours was a life so beautiful
    Yours was a life so meaningful
    Yours was a life so purposeful
    Yours was a life complete & full
    

D.S. Ranjit Kumar
December 31, 1996

He sent His WORD and healed them

Does God heal us today? Do we see that in our Church today? In the Tuesday Prayer Cell, I continuously see the number of people needing healing increasing, and it does not seem to decrease. Week after week, we religiously plod through the list in prayers. In the many years that I have been attending the Prayer Cell, I have not seen any demonstrated case of healing. So is it still true that God sends His Word and heals us? The last time I checked the King James Version of the Bible, Psalms 107:20 still reads “He sent His word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.”

The verse reads “He sent His word”. Who or what is this word? Who heals? Is it God or is it His word? According to my understanding of the verse, it is not God who is doing the healing but it is His Word that He has sent that is doing the healing. God seems to have already provided His Word with whatever healing power that is necessary to provide the healing.

John 1:14 says “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us”. In the gospel days, this Word-made-flesh healed ALL that came to Him. Today, where is this Word-made-flesh that can heal us?

What do we do when we fall sick? Are we surrendering our bodies to the Word-made-flesh? No. Instead, we are surrendering our bodies to the doctors and their words. Do doctors speak words of faith? No! They speak words of fear. They will bring out all the medical equipment at their disposal and find out what is wrong with the body. They will tell you all that can go wrong with the body if something is not done immediately, to shock you into fear, so that you can act on the fear and seek their healing. Now you are hooked by fear and you are so much in torment and you cannot even offer a word of prayer. So, you start seeking prayer from every one you know and one more name is added to the umpteen prayer lists.

Is there a better way? In my understanding of the Word of God, I do not see any verse in the Bible that says something like “Pray for the sick”. Matthew 10:8 says “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.” The church is commanded to “Heal the sick” and not “Pray for the sick”. So why do we waste so many hours praying for the sick, instead of healing the sick?

Mark 16:17-18 says, “These signs shall follow them that believe: In my name … they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” So, looks like we have ceased to believe, we have ceased to use His Name and stopped laying hands on the sick. We have stopped being responsible for what God has told us to do, and throw the responsibility back to God by praying for the sick. When God has not told us to “Pray for the sick”, He is not responsible to answer that prayer of idle words.