The Girl by the River

“While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That is how God showed his love.” — from Romans 5

In 1896 another terrible famine came to India. Ramabai did not want to go. She was tired, and she had very little money. But she heard God speaking in her heart: “Remember the days of old.” She remembered her own father and mother. She had been a hungry child herself. She could not stay at home.

So Ramabai travelled to the places where people were starving. She found many girls with no food and no family, and some wicked people who wanted to steal girls away and hurt them. She took as many girls as she could back with her. Soon she decided to rescue three hundred! Where would the money come from? “I do not know,” she wrote, “but the Lord knows what I need.”

On one trip home, the girls were riding in a line of bullock carts. They stopped by a river. One hungry girl picked beans from a farmer’s field, and Ramabai made her give them back. Later the girl ran away. When she was brought back, Ramabai was cross. She said the girl could go her own way, and she ordered the carts to leave without her.

The girl said she was sorry and begged to come, but Ramabai did not believe her. The carts began to move. The girl sat down on the ground, all alone, as it grew dark.

Ramabai could not bear it. She told the driver to stop. As she sat there, she remembered how many times she had run away from God, and how God had loved her and called her back, even while she was still a sinner. She waved to the girl. The girl jumped up and ran to her as fast as she could! Her name was Girija.

God did not wait for Ramabai to be good before he loved her, and he does not wait for you either. He loves you first. And he helps us to love others, even when they have done wrong.

Dear God, thank you that you loved me before I was good. Help me to forgive others and to welcome them back, the way you welcome me. Amen.