Trusting God to Love Our Children More Than We Do
One of the most difficult situations for a Christian husband or wife is being married to someone who does not share his or her deepest and most precious desire — to rear godly children. In the play He Is Near, we learn that from birth Mimosa has taught her boys to follow the one true God, while her husband Deva has continued in the pagan traditions of their community.
Mimosa’s and Deva’s oldest child Kinglet is now old enough to become an apprentice, so Deva makes arrangements for Kinglet to start working for a merchant. The merchant is impressed with Kinglet’s honesty but he is surprised when he notices that Kinglet does not wear the “holy ashes” of the idol Siva. Kinglet begins to tell the merchant that his mother does not believe in wearing them, when Deva interrupts and says that Kinglet will certainly smear them on his forehead. When Kinglet begins to speak of what his mother wants, Deva tells him, “I did not bring you here to be a disgrace!”
As Deva and Kinglet near the pagan temple, Kinglet asks what his mother would say. Deva tells him that he must smear the ashes on his forehead as he should have done all his life. Then he asks, “Do you want to bring a curse on yourself?”
As father and son near the door of the temple, the temple woman says, “I see you finally have your son where he belongs.”
Mimosa and her two youngest sons are playing together outside their home, when . . .
. . . a nosey neighbor comes by and asks where Kinglet is. Mimosa explains that he has begun working for the merchant.
When Kinglet arrives home, one of his brothers notices the ashes on his forehead. Before she leaves, the neighbor says, “Well, it seems your husband is finally teaching your eldest son some sense.”
Kinglet tells his mother that he is sorry and that he tried to refuse but that his father spoke harshly to him and he had to do it. Mimosa replies, “Oh, Kinglet. I have kept you pure from idol worship since you were a baby. And here you stand before me with Siva’s ashes on your forehead.”
After her boys run off to play together, Mimosa prays to her Father in heaven, “O my Father, can I bear it? Is everything going to end all wrong for us? It seems so, my Father. I cannot understand it. I prayed for something quite different. Will not my prayer be answered?” Then she weeps.
Stopping, Mimosa looks up to heaven again and says with confidence, “I will not trouble you by asking any more. I will leave all I have asked with You. Is it not Your concern? Have you not thus far wonderfully led me? Why do I grieve like this now? We are Your care. Is it not so? Then I need not be afraid.”
When I am afraid,
I will put my trust in You.
Psalm 56:3
This post is the seventh in a series about the play He Is Near, performed by the Homeschool Dramatic Society in mid-September. You can read the other posts in this series at these links: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth.
He Is Near is based on Mimosa by Amy Carmichael, © 1924 by The Dohnavur Fellowship; Gold Cord by Amy Carmichael, © 1932 by The Dohnavur Fellowship; Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur by Frank L. Houghton, © 1953 by The Dohnavur Fellowship; and Mountain Breezes: The Collected Poems of Amy Carmichael, ©1999 by The Dohnavur Fellowship. Used by permission of CLC Publications. For more information about Amy Carmichael and The Dohnavur Fellowship, or to purchase her books, visit clcpublications.com.