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Topic: CALENDAR (10/20/16)
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TITLE: Throw Away Those Stones | Previous Challenge Entry
By Rachel Varghese
10/26/16 -
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My parents had to move to a distant place from where we were to be in charge of a boarding school that had only upto the fifth grade. As I was already in the sixth grade I had to go to a residential school far away from home. I could come home only three times a year from the boarding school for holidays. I was nine years old and cried every time I had to go back to the school after a vacation. I did not like the food in the hostel and the chores that we had to do in the garden and around our boarding area. The christian school was trying to teach us the dignity of labor by making us to work, but I was too young to understand all that. Above everything, I missed my family terribly. I wept a lot when I was by myself because I was so home-sick.
I was so happy when I came home for the holidays, but when it came to an end I was very sad. I sat down with my two younger brothers and we took a calendar and counted the days I had to wait before the next holiday. It seemed such a long time and I cried bitterly every time I went to the railway station to go with two older students who went to the same school where I was.
There was a river behind the school and the the matron in charge of the girls hostel would take us for a walk to the river side on the weekends. We would play in the shallow banks and pick smooth pebbles and fill our pockets with them. When we came back to the hostel I would put the pebbles in a little box and count them. Then I got an idea, and thought that it was a very good one. I put the number of pebbles that were equivalent to the number of days to go home, in a box that I had. Every night before going to bed I would throw one of the stones behind the girls' dormitory. I would sigh looking at the pile of pebbles that were in my box and say to myself, 'I still have to throw a lot of stones from my box.' When the numbers became less I was so happy that I could get a visual view of how soon I could go home. The stones were my calendar and I kept in touch with them every day.
When we were children we used to check our calendars to see how long we had to wait for somebody's birthday. Then we would count how many more days for the school to close for vacation. We would ask our parents about our vacation plans. As we grew older our preferences changed, but the fun of having holidays and visiting friends and family does not change at all. We wait to go to our friends and relatives for vacations, we make plans to visit places of interest and enjoy them with friends and family
Now we are waiting to go to our heavenly home. We do not have a visual calendar to see how many more days we have to meet our Father in heaven. But He has given us all the signs to know when He will come to take us home. They are fulfilling very fast and the time of His appearance is just around the corner. We have crossed a lot of milestones in our journey. They show us that we are almost there. We have cried enough struggling in Satan's territory. We are carrying a lot of useless stones from this world in our pockets. They shine like precious stones and we are attracted to all the worthless ones. They drag us down and slow down our walk towards the heavenly home. We have to get rid of all of them them by throwing them away. Now is the time to prepare ourselves to enter that wonderful place. Our Father is patiently waiting for us to get ready to meet us. May we turn our eyes towards heaven's calendar and get ready to go there and spend eternity with our heavenly Father in home.
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