(Published in Inner Voice column, page 15, Hindustan Times, March 22, 2005)
Like every human being, many times I have ‘fallen short of the glory of God’ and have repeatedly asked for His forgiveness. Such times I have always felt distanced from Him.
After succumbing to temptation, we often feel cut off from His Holy Presence. We feel sapped of our energy and strength. The positive vibration of God’s Holy Presence is substituted with the negative vibration of guilt and loneliness.
Fear not if you have sinned, for so has everybody else. Had we not sinned, we would not be here on earth in the first place. Everyone else on this planet has sinned and therefore is born.
A passage in the Bible talks about Zacchaeus a publican, who because of his short stature climbed a tree to watch Jesus pass by.
When Jesus saw him, he called him down and said that he would stay with him that night.
Those around Jesus wondered why he wished to stay in the house of a sinner. Jesus replied, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
It is God’s wish to seek and save that which was lost.
He often sends us little hints that He is there to show us the way and that he is there to forgive us. The hints we send us are manifested in various ways.
We must all have experienced it. You open a holy book and your eyes fall on a verse that seems tailor made for your particular needs at that moment.
You are driving home from work and you are confused about something or worried and your eyes fall upon a road sign or a sticker on the back of a car and there comes the flash! You understand that God is trying to communicate with you! It is a joyful feeling — “For He is come to seek and save that which was lost!”