This picture was taken in an evangelistic rally in FGT, in 2008.
The person on my left , with his arms lifted up, is my father. It was the last picture taken of me and him together because 6 to 7 months after that, my father suffered a stroke from which he never recovered; he eventually passed away in 2011. When this photo was taken, I didn’t realize how significant it would be. I certainly didn’t know that my father only had another 3 years of life remaining. My father showed up for all 3 nights, and on each of those nights, he made his way to the altar and prayed for Jesus to save him.
This was an amazing turn of events. 25 years before this picture was taken (around 1983-84), my father burned my Bible. He was angry and upset with me for being a Christian, that he took my Bible, put it inside a rubbish bin, poured kerosene over it, and burned it. He stopped me from going to church or even mixing with people from church. For the first 5-6 years of my Christian life, I had very little church fellowship, I had no follow-up, and I couldn’t get water baptized. The only thing I had were the Bibles that people gave me, and that too, got burned.
In fact, my father was so against me being a Christian that he reacted by becoming a stronger Hindu; if only to try and counter my stand as a Christian. He became the temple treasurer in one of the largest temples in Pahang. He bought lots of books on Hinduism, religion & culture. He spent a lot of time reading these books, and he even wrote research articles on Hinduism and had them published in Tamil newspapers. Once, he brought a religious scholar friend to our house, for the sole purpose of debating with me on Hinduism vs Christianity.
My father was so against my Christianity that he used to stifle my monthly allowances when I was studying for my accountancy –by sending them very late, because he was upset that I was giving – in his words – “donation to the church” (i.e tithes). He even told me once, sarcastically – “hey, why don’t you quit your accountancy studies, and go and get a Bible degree? Since you spend so much time in church?
That was his attitude towards me, when it came to Christianity. But in other respects, my father, was also not an easy person to get along with; he had a temper issue. That often caused great problems, in my family, especially between him, and my mom. My parents had constant arguments – and when there were moments of peace in between, it was an uneasy, uncertain type of peace. We never knew when it was going to blow up again. We lived with that tension. We lived at the TNB quarters which was made up of about 20-25 houses, in a row, but every now and then, our house, would be the center of neighborhood attention, because of the arguments. Sometimes, it got so bad, that my mom & my siblings, we’ve had to leave our house, and stay elsewhere, if only because my mom couldn’t stand it anymore. In fact, around 1995, my mom finally left my father, and came over to live with me & my sister. It was a separation, though not a legal one. Divorce, was even contemplated, along the way. Though thankfully, it never came.
After my mom left him, my father was quite content to live on his own, back in our hometown. By this time, he had already retired and he had his steady pension income, so he could do whatever he wanted, go wherever he wanted. He was happy being on his own. He didn’t have too much of a worry in his life. He had his hang-out buddies & his DVD player; he could eat whatever or wherever he wanted. He was in retirement paradise. We too didn’t keep in touch with him as often as we used to, back when my mom was still staying with him. But we kept in touch enough to just keep things going by.
Then, in 2008, when FGT organized this rally, I felt God put it in my heart, to invite my father to come. You can imagine I struggled with that; but I felt God told me to give it a go. And with a certain amount of fear/trepidation – I did that. I gave it a go. Imagine my surprise, when instead of slamming the phone on me, my father replied instead that, “he will come”. In fact, he sounded enthusiastic about it. Totally opposite, of what I had feared was going to happen!
And that was when I felt in my heart that God was going do something special in his life.
What I wasn’t aware of was that this was going to be the last stretch in my father’s life. On each of those 3 nights, God touched my father. He gave his life to Jesus. He gave his life to Christ, when he had spent most of it, rejecting & ridiculing Christianity. That’s what you see in this picture – God stepping into his life.
It wasn’t overnight, but after this, we began to get closer – at least him & me, because there was no longer religious tension between us. I started seeing him a lot more. After he had his stroke, he was bed-ridden, and he never recovered from it. On his deathbed, as he was breathing his last, all of us, my siblings – and my mom – were gathered together, surrounding him. As we were all saying our goodbyes, my mom went over to him, and told him, “I forgive you.” Those were among the last words my father heard, before he passed on to eternity.
Against all odds, when our relationship as a family could have disintegrated, my father was able to make peace, with everyone that mattered. On that night in 2008, I believe God was preparing my father, to show him mercy, in what would be the last lap of his life. He could have died alone, and we wouldn’t have known about it; he could have held on to his pride, and refuse to let Jesus in. He could have been stubborn, and walk away from his family. Instead, he got the best parting gift a man could have on his deathbed – his family standing next to him, surrounding him.
That is why this picture is amazing; because it tells the story of God stepping in, and turning a man’s life around. My father’s life. That’s why I know what the Bible teaches isn’t some fairy-tale, outdated, out-of-touch stuff.
My family is living proof, of the miracle of reconciliation.