One Word on a Bird-Bath

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it stays alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” — from John 12

In 1947 India became an independent country. That same year, a new law in South India said that no more little girls could be given away to temples. Brave Indian leaders, like a doctor named Muthulakshmi Reddy, had worked for many years to make that law. Amy had spent nearly fifty years caring for children one by one, and she lived to see it.

Amy grew very old and weak. On 18 January 1951 she died at Dohnavur. She was eighty-three. She had lived in India for fifty-five years, and she had never once gone home. The people who cared for her at the end were her own big family, Indian and British, many of whom had grown up at Dohnavur.

Amy did not want a grand stone with her name and a list of the things she had done. She was buried in Dohnavur’s own burial ground, which was called God’s Garden, near children and friends who had gone before her. Over her grave her family put a bird-bath, like the one she had watched from her window. On it they wrote just one word: Amma.

Dohnavur did not end when Amy died. Its work goes on today, led by Indian Christians, caring for children and families at the foot of the mountains, and the hospital still helps the villages around. Far away in Belfast, a church still meets in the Welcome Hall that Amy prayed for.

Amy’s great work began with one child, Preena, who walked through the dark to find her. Amy believed that one child mattered to God. Then another came, and another, and another.

Jesus said that a seed must be planted in the ground before it can grow. Amy gave up many things she loved, and God made her life grow into something beautiful. When you give your life to Jesus, he can make it fruitful too.

Dear God, thank you for Amy Carmichael and all the children she loved. Thank you that every child matters to you. Help me to give my life to you, and to love others the way Amy did. Amen.