“...I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you...” Genesis 9:15

My precious ones in Christ, it is truly a joy to get in touch with you through this blog. First of all I would like to render my sincere apologies for the late post. I hope this post will be a blessing.

When I was praying as to what I should share for this month the only word which kept ringing inside of me is “A New Covenant” and that our God is a covenant keeping God.

I would like to narrate one of my own experiences here.

We as a family have gone through much turmoil, pain, sickness and rejection many a times but not at one moment have we felt we were left alone or rejected by this Almighty God we serve. One such incident is when it came to my college admissions and God had promised when I was only 10 years of age that I would become a medical missionary. Years went by and I grew up studying in the best schools in the country but during my 12th grade I fell prey to a very bad condition called absence seizures which deteriorated my health and hampered my academics. I was shattered when my results came as it was nowhere close to getting into a medical school.

Having been a good student in school and seeing all my friends getting admitted into some college or the other, some of them in the very institutes I longed to be a part of, wasn’t easy. My parents and my brother tried their best to encourage but to no avail. At that point I couldn’t understand why God’s promise would not be fulfilled in my life and to make things worse I acquired typhoid and was admitted with IV lines when my peers were holding new books and pens in their hands awaiting their new start in their new college. The only thing I would feel proud about myself which I’m sure the Holy Spirit Himself put into my heart was that I wouldn’t get into any other course without Him (Jesus) saying yes to it!!

Days went by when all the admissions closed down and I was put into a coaching centre for writing my entrance exams next year. My parents faced a tough time answering so many of our kith and kin as to why I had dropped a year and that it was just a mere waste of time. All I would hear my family discuss was that someone had said I wouldn’t definitely get through as entrance examinations weren’t easy to crack. Towards the end, I gave up.

I dreaded the time when my entrance exams approached. Every day was emotional pain. One day when I was supposed to write the entrance for the college which had been my dream land for years, we were caught in heavy traffic and I thought to myself that I’m never going to make it to the exam and was quite happy as I had totally hated the profession that I once loved so dearly. But alas! To my surprise our car was stuck exactly at a point where a U turn could be taken and by then my father was requesting the long queue of cars to make some space for us to move! Seeing his agitation one of the bus drivers made sure the bus was obliquely parked across the road so no vehicles would cross until we took the U turn. And what an event!! We did!! We managed to actually take a U turn in that jam packed array of vehicles both in front and behind us!! Never in my life have I ever been touched by my father’s love for me and thought to myself that I will not have to give up on my exams at least for him! Just as we were taking our turn and entered into a narrow street my eyes fell on three letters written in red on a sign board, the very letters that were responsible for changing my life many years ago. It said “Jesus loves you.” I wept like a child overwhelmed by God’s love at a situation when I did not deserve it. I finally wrote the exam that day and came out of the examination hall with great assurance that what my relatives had said would come true. I would definitely not make it!!

The final day of results came and none of us would want to look at it as we had no hopes. Just then I received a call from our pastor’s son. He said “Akka, you got through!!” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and asked him for the full name and told my ID number. And lo and behold it was my name written on the final selection list!! I broke with tears before my brother. All of a sudden the pain I had been through for the past year made sense, it made perfect sense.

Months went by after I had joined one of the most prestigious institutes - Christian Medical College, Vellore when my mother and I were travelling back home for vacation. And as we were on our journey it suddenly started to rain. It was very heavy showers we couldn’t see an inch in front of us. It was quite surprising as it was sunny just a few moments before that. After a few minutes the rain stopped and behold we were on this highway with beautiful scenery around us and at a distance I could see something shining in bright colours. As we got near I realized that it was something that I had cherished as a child, something that taught me about my God. It was a rainbow!! It was spanning right across the ends of the road and as our car was passing through it I heard someone, a voice I very well knew. He said, “I am a God who keeps My covenant.” Tears gushed out of my eyes as memories flashed before me of my childhood to where I was then – from being a failure to a medical student in the best college in the country. He’d never left me alone, never left me down.

My dear friend, if there’s one thing I can vouch for, of His character. HE IS A GOD WHO KEEPS HIS COVENANT, NO MATTER WHAT! Sometimes even you cannot be a barrier to it because He loves you unconditionally.

I just want to leave this one promise for this month for you, our God – He’s a God of covenant and He will never fail. Keep trusting. This month you will see His covenant fulfilled in your life. God is good. Jesus loves you. Amen.

Sis Ida Christine A

God’s love missions family