Empty Trains and Crowded Skies

It doesn’t take long to see the sheer density of the population here in India. The countryside is occupied by villages, the cities tower with tenements, while the rail, air and roadways channel an insurmountable number of people each day within the country.

On a drive home from Mumbai last week I was inspired as I looked out my passenger window. I saw thousands of people going “somewhere;” from city to city it was the same. Every tenement we passed told a different story, and the lights of the city flickered on and off as people came and went. Children played cricket under a street lamp, teenagers huddled around a street vendor, old and young alike walked to their final destination.

For some reason the thought came to my mind, “What will these cities look like when the faithful are caught up with the Lord in the sky, on that glorious day when in a twinkling of an eye we are transformed into citizens of heaven?”

The thought startled me…where would the scale fall? Would the trains still be packed with unbelief, will these streets still occupy ignorance? There are just over a billion people in the country of India and although the Christian population is growing, a full understanding and acceptance of Christ is far off in the distance. It was people like William Carey, Amy Carmichael and Mother Theresa that embraced the plow to break the ground in this country for the message to be preached. Even today ministries and programs are only laying the foundation for the Church to be built, grow, and spread as the Spirit guides them.

But as I looked out the window, and as I thought of this lost culture I have lived in for the past eight months…I looked upon each face with their eternal destiny in mind, I wasn’t satisfied. Surely we can do better, certainly we can be of more influence, indeed can we love more.

I am willing to give my life for this country, for any country of that matter. Too often I forget that people around our world, in our city, on our streets enter into eternity each moment without knowing their Savior. Lord help us, prepare us, and go before us as we choose to no longer live idly and silent. May we see a day when the streets are deserted, the trains are empty and multitudes are caught up with their Maker in the sky.