When People Don’t Understand Why You Are Different
When Scene 5 opens in He is Near, Mimosa’s home village is loud and lively. It took some coaching to get our actors and actresses comfortable with that, but by opening night last Thursday, they had it. In fact, the same was true for the entire play. Whether they had to act playful or mean, thoughtful or angry, faithful or condemning, joyful or in despair, by Thursday night they had it down.
Soon the townspeople gather for a lively performance of “Rickshaw!” Almost every song in this year’s play came straight from Dohnavur Fellowship. Amy Carmichael wrote most of the words. However, each year Mary Evelyn writes and choreographs a lively song and dance for the play. This year it was “Rickshaw!” Here’s the chorus and the first verse.
Vaanga! Vaanga! Engae Pohanum? Rickshaw! Rickshaw! (means Come! Come! Where do you want to go?)
Where do you want to go? Rickshaw!
Vaanga! Vaanga! Engae Pohanum? Rickshaw! Rickshaw!
Where do you want to go?
Watch out for the bullock cart!
Watch out for the bandy!
Best to take the rickshaw where you need to go! Rickshaw!
Watch out for the cows around you!
Watch out for the people!
Best to take the rickshaw where you need to go! Rickshaw!
The townspeople performed the dance beautifully at every performance.
After the dance, the audience’s attention goes to stage left where Mimosa and her mother stand outside their home. Mimosa’s mother reprimands Mimosa for not wearing the ashes of the idol Siva on her forehead. Mimosa tells her mother: “But the ashes mean allegiance to Siva. Siva is not my god now. I have another God. A loving God . . . Mother, the white woman told me about a living and loving God. She called Him ‘Father.’ She said He made everything in the world. He made the sun and the moon and the stars and even me. And she said that He loves me.”
Mimosa’s father comes out of the house, asking what is wrong. When he learns the problem, he says, “Mimosa, I do not bring those ashes from the temple for no reason. The ashes symbolize allegiance to Siva.”
Mimosa responds, “But, Father, Siva is not my god. I have a God of love. I felt His great love that day at Dohnavur. Not only did I feel it, but I saw it as well.”
Neighbors are waiting in the shadows to condemn Mimosa themselves.
When her parents leave, the neighbors accuse Mimosa of drinking of the “white people’s medicine.”
When everyone finally leaves Mimosa in peace, she sings the song she heard the children singing during her short visit at Dohnavur, “He Is Near.”
Far away at Dohnavur Fellowship (in center stage), Mimosa’s sister Star (at left) and Amy Carmichael sing in unison with Mimosa.
The stage goes black and when the lights come back on, Mimosa and Star have grown up.
When the scene changes to the village and its giant Hindu temple, Mimosa’s neighbors are gossiping about her. She has married and she has done an unthinkable thing. She has sold her wedding jewels to pay off her husband’s debts.
Soon Mimosa and her mother meet on the street in front of the group of gossipers. Mimosa asks her mother for the money she has given her for safekeeping.
When Mimosa’s mother condemns her for selling the jewels, refuses to give her the money, and says she is no daughter of hers, Mimosa goes home and turns to her Father in heaven. She tells Him that her husband has deceived her, his brother has deceived her, and now her mother has deceived her. She tells God, “You will not deceive me” and asks, “Oh, what should I do without You?”
Our Father is near to you and me, too. He is a strong anchor when people deceive or spurn you. When people react in hurtful ways when you make bold choices that are not the norm and make you seem different, He is near. Hold on tight and teach your children to do the same.
In the same way God, desiring even more
to show to the heirs of the promise
the unchangeableness of His purpose,
interposed with an oath, by two unchangeable things
in which it is impossible for God to lie,
we who have taken refuge
would have strong encouragement
to take hold of the hope set before us.
This hope we have as an anchor of the soul,
a hope both sure and steadfast
and one which enters within the veil,
where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us,
Hebrews 6:17-20a
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.