LOST AND FOUND



“As we work to create light for others,

we naturally light our own way.”

Mary Anne Radmacher


After her fall in mid-2021, my Mom’s health began to sink. A year ago, just after her 87th birthday, we thought, she wouldn’t make it. That was the time, I started putting together a book about her. I did not have to think hard for the title… I named the book – ‘The Good Shepherd & Her Lost Sheep’.

In one of His parables, Jesus tells about a shepherd. This shepherd has hundred sheep and loses one of them... He leaves all the ninety-nine and goes looking for the one which is lost… When he finds the lost sheep, he rejoices, crying – ‘I found my lost sheep’…

Our Mom had five sons, and each one of them was ‘lost’ at one time or the other, and in one way or the other. Our Mom was our good shepherd… She had to go looking for each of her ‘lost sheep’… and, like the good shepherd in Jesus’ parable, our Mom’s joy knew no bounds!

In the first section of this book, I shared many stories of how Mom’s small, random gestures had touched my life in a major way. There had been so many of such little gestures, that I could not include all of them. One of them is this…

One day, when I was a little boy, about 7 or 8, I was walking along a lane towards our village house. I still remember, that it was a Sunday, and my older cousin from Bombay, Stany, was with me (He had come down to our village on a vacation). The lane was lonely. Suddenly, my eyes caught a wallet lying on the ground… I bent down and picked it up… Opened it… There was one ten-rupee note and some papers… I pulled out the ten-rupee note, tucked it in one of my pockets, and the wallet with papers, in the other… A few steps we had walked, when a young man approached us on his bicycle… He asked, “By any chance, did you find a wallet? I have just lost it along this lane somewhere.” My cousin was looking at me… I quickly pulled the wallet from my pocket and handed it to the man… He opened it and said, “These are important papers… Thank you very much.”

The ten-rupee note stayed back in my other pocket. My cousin knew how smartly I had tricked that stranger. Even though he did not lecture me at that time, at home, he narrated the episode to my Mom… She was angry on me and said, “You should have handed it back to that poor man.”

There was no way I could find that stranger and wash my sins… My Mom dropped the ten-rupee note in the little charity-box (Church keeps such boxes in Catholic homes for small charity) placed near our altar. Mom also insisted, that I confessed my ‘sin’ during my weekly confession, which I did.

It is said, that our character is what we do/how we behave in the dark.... Yes, when no one watches us, God still does, But, then, because God doesn’t immediately come down to scold or punish us, we continue with our 'little tricks'…

Often, these 'little tricks' grow into 'big tricks', you see!





For several years, during our summer programme on Personality Development, I have been playing this video for our little ones and young ones…




 

I, particularly, love the way this little village-boy walks back home – like a Prince, his head held high, beaming with self-confidence. Obviously, his act has brought in him that glow of self-confidence… He just cannot help but feeling good about himself… “That’s how we all can build our self-confidence,” I keep reminding to our little and young hearts, sharing my own village story…

Who must’ve taught this little village-boy to act so? His mother?

Well, my mother had…




It was raining, yesterday… As I was walking out of our gate (my work place), my eyes caught a wet fifty-rupee note on the ground… I bent down, picked it up… No one was around… But, a little ahead, the young watchman was watching me from his cabin… I walked towards him and said, “Keep it.”

“Thank you, Sir,” the glow on the watchman’s face helped me light my own path. I was walking like a Prince - with my head held high, remembering the two village boys – of similar age…

One of them had walked a long way…

"Life is all about coming home"… How true, isn't it?

 

GERALD D’CUNHA

 

Pic’s: Pixels/Pixabay

 

Video: Naik Foundation

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