When Everything is Lost and Everyone is Gone

It was on 8th July 1982 that life took a new turn for me. The encounter with death in the air crash on that day made me think deeply about life and its meaning. My search finally led me to a firm faith in the grace and providence of the Divine that guide the destinies of humankind, and of their nations and religions. Life is a gift and grace, given to us free by the Divine! I came to accept and acknowledge divine grace as the source and ground of my very existence. How to experience and grow in this divine grace? A new search began. It took me to religion. I went back to the religion of my birth, Christianity. I started reading the Bible carefully and meditating on the 'Divine Word' prayerfully. St. John in his Gospel narrative says: "Law was given though Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (Jn. 1.17). My spiritual quest thereafter turned towards Lord Jesus Christ. I wanted to personally experience the grace and truth that came to humanity through Jesus Christ. This has been a very challenging, and at the same time a very exciting, pilgrimage of faith. The inner thirst' grew deeper as the days, months and years went by. I was being swept off my feet. I felt as if I was losing everything that I had held dear to my heart earlier. Even my wife, whom I had loved and married could not understand my plight. One night, sitting alone in my room in the Air Force Hospital, Bangalore, I had a very deeply soothing experience of the 'healing touch' of the Divine Love through Lord Jesus Christ. Great peace and joy filled my heart, my whole being! More than the air crash it was this personal spiritual experience that changed my life so radically. These initial experiences in my pilgrimage of faith led me to realise three important eternal spiritual truths: 1. When it comes to the deeper things of life, we are quite lonely in this world, and naked in front of a reality which is beyond our comprehension! 2. When everything is lost and everyone is gone, Lord Jesus Christ still remains ever available to anyone who 'seeks, asks and knocks' for his help. One's own religious affiliation or church membership does not matter in this process! 3. Once we are touched by the living Spirit of Christ, we can never be the same again. We become a new creation in Christ, a navasrushti of God!