In Zohrab's Pain, God Shouts 2

In Zohrab's Pain, God Shouts

by Hicham Chehab

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. (Revelations 7: 9)

Zohrab's story with Salam Arabic Fellowship started with acts of unconditional love.

A year ago, an Iranian friend asked me to drive Zohrab, a throat cancer patient with no means of transportation, to his chemotherapy appointments. It was a big problem which needed a lot of commitment and coordination with volunteers, because it was 4 days a week, come rain or shine.

Zohrab, a taciturn slim man in his fifties would ride the 55-mile drive with me with tight lips. I often tried to pray for him or talk to him in order to share the love of Jesus Christ, but his bluish, ashy face was often stolid. Riding next to me, breathing through a hole in his throat, I often thought that he was impervious to the Gospel, and that he was there only for the ride. He always gazed with melancholy into the distance ahead of us, with a look of certain death in his pale face.

But the Word of God is mighty and sharper than a double-edged sword. As C.S. Lewis says: "God whispers in our pleasures, but shouts in our pain." A year passed, and both Zohrab's spiritual and physical health started to get better. Zohrab started to call me every Friday around 5 pm in order to make sure that somebody was going to give him a ride to the Saturday Salam Arabic worship meeting.

Zohrab never missed a Bible study or worship, and he started to show positive change in his behavior. Zohrab started to spend his mornings in reading the Bible. Even though Zohrab was unemployed and had no money, he insisted to donate money to Salam's activities. His money was like the Widow's Mite.

On the last Wednesday of Lent, Zohrab asked me if he could be baptized. That evening following the Lenten Service of Peace Lutheran, Salam's host congregation, Zohrab became God's own in baptism.

I received the following email from a member of Peace congregation's ministry staff who attended the baptism:
"It was a very special event! His baptism was encouraging and inspiring.... It gave me great joy to see the Holy Spirit growing in him, and it gave me a better picture of the "whole church". (Not just the white, suburban, English speaking Sunday crowd that I'm used too.) It will be a beautiful thing to get to heaven and to see the great diversity of Christians and the unity that we have in him. It will be a truly amazing thing to praise God in heaven--side by side with people of every nationality, and language, from every generation!"
Amen!

Hicham Chehab