I learned something today. God operates in mysterious ways, which we may never be able to understand until the final pieces of the jigsaw are in the right place. This is a true incident that happened to me on the 26th July o9.
We had this problem in our borewell motor. We had spent a good amount of money on a submersible pump which was functioning perfectly well until 3 days back. I came all the way from Bangalore to assist my Mom in getting the problem sorted out. I came to Madurai on a Saturday morning. The plumbers who came to fix it were working on the pump and they were not able to get the motor out of the bore well. They put some urea into the well to get the sand loosened so that they can shake the motor out of the well. It didnt help at all. The plumbers were not able to lift the pump even one feet out of the well. The reason: there was a cave in and the submersible motor was stuck between sand and mud. The plan for the next day was to try and lift the pump using a chain block. A contraption was erected on Sunday and the attempt to lift the pump resumed. After some initial hope, I heard the ropes snap, and the motor along with with 150 feet of pipe fell into the bore well which was 230 feet deep.
I was always praying god, that the entire issue be sorted out on Sunday before I leave, because, once I leave, my Mom would have to handle things almost single handedly. So all my prayers were directed towards the completion of the work on Sunday. When I heard the ropes snapped, I was not able to believe it. I was speechless. The plumbers mentioned that the sunken pump had to be retrieved before anything can be done and it had to be done a different team of "experts", who were not available until Monday. So we had to wait till the next day to even assess the next step. Plumbers were mentioning that, if the motor was not retrievable, the well would have to be abandoned and a new one had to be dug. I was totally devastated. I was about to curse the gods, but I did not, the reason, I don't know.
With the intended plan for the motor going against my wish, I suggested my Mom that we visit my Grandma(achi) who lives 50 KM away from our place. She is 80 year old and she had fell down in her home 2 or 3 days earlier. My mom had brought her digital sugar meter along to test Achi's sugar level. When it was tested, we were all shocked to find that it was at 580. Remember that the safe limit for blood sugar in human body is around 120. She was just one step before she passed out into a life threatening Coma. Luckily, we were able to find this out and took her back to Madurai, where Amma was able to provide the medical support and restore her.
Here is the interesting observation. Had the plumbing work gone according to what I had prayed for, the work would have stretched way into the Sunday evening. We would not have gone to Virudhunagar in that case. God did not listen to my prayers because , if he had given what I had asked for, my Grandma would have suffered. He rejected my prayers, but helped me in a different way, which had brought me more happiness than what I would have got, had my prayers been answered.
Until that day, I did not believe that whatever happens always happen for a reason. We may be seeing only one part of the picture and may cry that something which we earned for did not happen. But when God places the final piece of the jigsaw is in place, and when we see the entire picture, we may realize why things happened in the way they did. Only then we may start appreciating the true intent of God. Some actions of God may happen against our will and our expectations, but everything has a meaning, something which we may never come to know until all the pieces of the jigsaw fit. Till then, the mortal mind is restless.
A friend of mine once told me, God gives you what you need, rather than what you want. What we may want, may ultimately turn out to be something poisonous. So dont try to cry over some situation which did not unfold in the way you wanted. Just wait till the time God fits in the pieces of the jigsaw.
