A good tradition, for now

A big part of being connected with GB, leave alone being his daughter, was to constantly question and analyse our practices against the scriptures. Christmas was no exception. Is it commanded? Should we celebrate? Does it glorify Jesus? Etc., etc., etc.

And every year GB would arrive at some conclusion or other, and the rest of us would cheerfully fall in line. One time the plan, when family and friends were sitting down to have turkey biriyani in their homes, was to have thayir saadam and lime pickle (which he thought was the humblest of foods, while being yum at the same time). I don’t know about the others, but I was GB’s opposition and his ally all rolled into one, and I enjoyed Christmas wherever it fell.

I can now see why many in our social circles were a bit wary of GB, but he was pretty oblivious to the effect he was having on others. May be he was on the spectrum or something, but the Lord used him in amazing ways to brings scores of people to Himself.
What comes to mind is the idea of SPRING CLEANING AND AIRING OUT OLD ITEMS . . . OK let me explain.

Although GB had been a God-fearing and honest person his whole life, a chorister and organist, and a choir conductor, he came to what he considered to be the experience of rebirth in 1971 at the age of 45 in a Keswick convention in Calcutta. That made him rethink every practice and tradition. What followed was a huge spring clean of everything that had been a part of his “Christianity” upto that point. And as a church musician coming from a musical family, Christmas also included much that was NOT to do with honoring Jesus. And we needed the thayir saadam to wean ourselves from empty tradition.

Fast forward to the last years of his life in Auckland, when the spring-cleaning process was over for him; every one of us has to do our own due diligence. Here is a home video of a Christmas eve in 2014, and you can see GB with us.

Starting from 2012 when we moved to Alicante Ave and when the Anbunathans and Prakasas joined us there, we have gathered to sing and worship this great God who reached down to us in the Incarnation with the plan to die for us. By this He showed His LOVE. And He also showed us His JUSTICE in that He could not sweep sin under the carpet. God had to punish sin, and God bore the punishment. This is a mystery we will talk about for eternity.

It is a good tradition, for now.