A Bhutanese Family

Week 6, Thursday

Elaine Meador

Lord, You have searched me and known me. . . . For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. . . .Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all [my] days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began. Psalm 139:1,13,16 (hcsb)

As the bus drove away, the couple looked across the valley to the Chime Lhakhang Temple. After the five-hour ride from Thimphu, the capitol of Bhutan, the walk through the rice fields and up the hill to the temple was welcome. The man helped his wife adjust the straps that held their infant son securely on her back, then picked up the bag containing rice and other offerings. The mother opened her umbrella to shade the baby’s face from the sun, and the family started up the narrow path.

A year earlier, the couple had visited the temple asking for help from the priests. They wanted another child, a son. Today, on their son’s two-month birthday, they were bringing him to the temple to give thanks to the gods for his birth and to ask the priests to give him a name that would ensure his future protection and blessing. The name would incorporate a portion of the name of this famous Bhutanese temple, and this baby, like his older sister and hundreds of other Bhutanese children, would become a living testimony to the supposed power of the Tantric Buddhist gods worshipped at Chime Lhakhang. At least once a year the family will return to the temple with offerings they hope will guarantee the continued health, safety, and prosperity of their children.

Darkness and spiritual captivity deepen in Bhutan and other Buddhist countries as the honor and glory due the Creator of the universe is given to idols.

Powerful Creator, break the hold of Tantric Buddhism over the peoples of Bhutan, India, Tibet, and Mongolia. Open their blinded eyes to see and know You, the only true God. Send the stories of Your redemptive love into every household. Enable the followers of Tantric Buddhism to know Your character and Your ways. May they experience Your grace. Thank You, Father, for the small but growing number of believers in these places. Enable them to stand firm in the midst of increasing persecution. Make them Your bold, effective, winsome witnesses. Amen.