Grace In Place Of Grace

Evening hours of 18 August 2009. Place: SAIACS library. I am hearing the song on Psalm 91 “unnathamanavarin” through my earphones, thanking the Lord for the incident that had changed my life upside down on that very same day in the year 1992. It was another happy day because that was the day my D. Min thesis had been approved by the academic committee after a rigorous scrutiny. Circumstances in life (both good and bad) had made me do my research for five years (normally three). The joy was so real. But things turned different within hours.

At the parking lot I had kept my laptop bag. My husband Suresh was there to take me home by scooter. In my excitement I sat on the scooter, forgetting to take my laptop bag. Before we reached Hennur cross, I realised that my laptop bag was missing. I became dizzy realising the fact that my five years of hard-worked researched stuff had been  lost by then. Anyone could have taken my laptop bag and walked out of the gate. I immediately rang up to my friend Shibhi who was in hostel there asking her to check it at the gate. Praise God! My laptop was safe with the security guard at the gate. The joy of getting my laptop back and imaginations of graduating D.Min lasted for few minutes only. Something else was going to happen which we never knew!

It started to drizzle. Both of us wore our raincoats and started our journey back home happily. This time before reaching Hennur Cross we met with an accident. My husband who was driving did not see a big pothole covered with rain water. The scooter skidded and both of us were thrown out on the main highway. I got up without any scratch, but I saw Suresh bleeding profusely. While I was still in a state of shock, I saw a big, muscled gentle man walking to him, putting his arms around him and bringing him to the side of the road. He tears off his new cotton T-shirt and gives first aid to my husband. I stare at the Good Samaritan. He looked familiar to me by then. While doing my “Urban Ministry” module  at SAIACS, I had gone for a field trip to “Home of Hope” and I had seen this man there! I told him that I know him and he says, “I am Raja.” My joy knew no bounds then. “Auto Raja?” I ask. He says, “Yes.” By now he has informed his colleagues at Home of Hope. They came there with their ambulance. Bro Raja (not a medical doctor!) gives my husband tetanus and a pain-killer injection, all by himself, on the road. He and his friends lift up the scooter and put it on the ambulance. He asks us both to get into the vehicle. We reached home safe that night. We realised the grace of God in bringing the “Good Samaritan” of the city of Bengaluru onto the accident site and taking good care of us in a time of despair and need!

Satan tried his best to touch our lives on the very same day God showered his grace in 1992 in letting me live. Satan is a defeated foe. God is victor in our lives. Amen!

“Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.” (John 1:16)