Alone with Her God, Mimosa Faithfully ENDURED Great Suffering
The Apostle John wrote that believers filled with the Holy Spirit need no one to teach them (1 John 2:27). Mimosa’s experiences are proof that John's words are not mere abstractions.
Mimosa learned a bit about God as a child. Her contact with Christianity was through an older sister, “Star.” Eleven-year-old Star (actual name Arulai) had heard Christian preaching on this day, 16 March 1899, and slipped off to join missionary Amy Carmichael. Her family quickly reclaimed the girl, but after the Christians nursed Star during an illness, her father permitted her to live with them. The Hindu father took Mimosa to visit Star at Dohnavur. Christian women had about thirty minutes to teach Mimosa that the great God who made heaven and earth loved her. Little Mimosa grasped the idea. She pleaded tearfully with her father to allow her to stay longer to learn more. He rejected the suggestion. He was already embarrassed because Star had forsaken Hinduism.
So Mimosa returned home. With no knowledge of Christ, but certain of God’s love, she refused to wear Siva’s ashes any longer. Siva was no longer her God, she said. For twenty-two years, alone with her unseen God, abused, beaten, and ridiculed, she trusted herself to his love. In ways that only her heart could understand, God guided her to do right even when it went against her culture’s norms. Hardships piled upon hardships. Through it all she turned trusting eyes to him, insisting in her worst circumstances that she was “not offended” by him.
Unable to read or write, she could not contact Dohnavur. She had no Bible. Local Christians were of a higher caste and ignored her existence except for one half-senile old woman who shared scraps of Bible knowledge and hymns. Thus Mimosa found strength in God, and he was faithful to meet her needs.
Once he laid it on Star’s heart to write her a letter. Unaware of Mimosa’s rejection by her family or that she cherished God in her heart, Star quoted Psalm 27 to her in the Tamil language, “Though my father and my mother may forsake me, the Lord will draw me close to Himself.” A kind cousin read the letter to her and the words exactly fitted Mimosa’s experience and her desperate needs.
Her husband lost his sight after a snake bite and went mad. She prayed and he gradually regained both sight and mind.
Her boys became ill with an itching ailment that could easily be relieved with oil but she had no money for oil. She had them kneel, telling them “Our God can help us even with this.” Siblings—sisters who lived a long distance away and knew nothing of Mimosa’s circumstances—were suddenly impressed to send her a little money. The boys got oil.
Once when illnesses had drained Mimosa's last reserves, she had no food. She gathered her sons and told them, “We have praised our God when we had food. Now let us praise him when we have none.” Her children fell asleep with empty stomachs. Then she heard footsteps and a whisper in the darkness. She opened her door to find her kind cousin with a pot of food. Although she had spoken to no one of her situation, he had been unable to sleep until he brought the remnants of his dinner to her—rice and curried vegetables.
Eventually, after twenty-two years, God made it possible for Mimosa to revisit Dohnavur, bringing her sons for education. Hardship made her appear decades older than she was. Seeing Star’s Bible and her stacks of books, she said to her sister, “You know Him [God] by learning, but I know him by suffering.”
God’s workings in Mimosa’s life were compiled by Amy Carmichael in Mimosa: who was charmed.
—Dan Graves
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Learn more about Amy Carmichael's ministry in Amy Carmichael: Mother of the Motherless at RedeemTV.
Amy Carmichael: Mother of the Motherless can be purchased at Vision Video.
Other Events on this Day
- Ironside Preached His First Sermon at Moody Memorial Church
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