MANY a time in your lives you have thanked your heavenly Father for the good gifts which He has given you; happy homes, father and mother, health, kind friends, and, above all, a Saviour provided by God in Christ Jesus.
Most of you could continue the list of blessings till it was quite a long one; and for each one of them your heart goes up in thankfulness to the Giver. But have you ever thought about thanking God for the troubles He sends you? That is quite a different thing, you may say; and perhaps you think it is scarcely possible to do so. However, you may see from the story of poor Christina, that it is possible; for she does it.
Christina was a poor Indian girl. Once she had been happy, but husband, home and baby boy had all been taken from her, and she was turned out of the village to wander about, and die. For an awful thing had happened to her—she had become a leper. Her husband, instead of being sorry for her, was more cruel than anyone else, and would not even allow her to speak to him anymore.
Christina went to the priests, who told her to fast, and sacrifice to their idols, which command she faithfully obeyed. But she became only worse. Then she went to different priests and to a different temple, where she fasted, and bathed, and lived a miserable life, always wet and shivering and hungry. Disappointed, she forsook this way of cleansing to go to the “holy” river Ganges, to bathe there, hoping to die in the waters, and end her sad life. But she did not find death when she sought it, and sorrowful and starving she turned back to her own village, only to be driven out once more to wander about and beg as best she might.
One day she was begging as usual of the passers-by, when a little Christian child came along. He stopped and looked pitifully at her poor scarred face and maimed hands, and instead of turning away with disgust, he said quietly, “Why do you beg here? Go to the Leper Asylum; there you will fare well, and will not need to beg. Jesus lives there.”
What wonderful news this was to Christina! It seemed too beautiful to be true, that anyone could still care for her. But she soon found the little child was right. She was received and nursed and loved, for Jesus’ sake.
“O, how much pain I once suffered!” she said to one of the visitors to the Asylum. “How much time and money I once spent on the idols, though they could not help me! Here my body is cared for; they give me medicine, so that my leprous sores no longer pain me.
“Before all, I have the dear God’s words, and have learned to know and love the Lord Jesus.
“Praise be to God, Who sent me this disease! Praised be God to all eternity!”
ML 06/10/1917