Picture a wedding party gathered on a busy street in Rajahmundry, India. Four men held poles which suspended a canopy above a young bride and groom as they marched along a busy street. A modest band, one drummer and one coronet player, led the procession. Cars, trucks, wooden-wheeled carts drawn by bullocks, three-wheeled taxis, bicycles and motorcycles rolled past them – it seemed every vehicle with a horn was honking.
The bride was dressed in a modest, daily-wear sari, not the customary red and gold silk wedding outfit often worn by brides from wealthier families. It was the groom’s appearance that caught my attention: he wore a headdress topped with a lighted candle aglow!
The canopied wedding party moved slowly through the busy street toward a temple. I suspect they would there invoke a blessing from the Hindu god Ganesh, the pot-bellied elephant-deity, almost a stereotype of Indian Hinduism. Ganesh is often portrayed seated on a throne as Hindu royalty. He is an idol to whom a young couple would logically pray, because like an elephant which can muscle impediments out of the way, Hindus assume he can force open doors or push obstacles aside to clear a path toward a happy marriage and a successful life.
St. Paul instructs, We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one (I Corinthians 8). And our Savior instructs us to share the Gospel and the truth about the only True God, the Trinity, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28).
(The ELS relationship with The Lutheran Mission of Salvation – India is conducted by the Asia Committee of the Board for World Outreach.)
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Steve Petersen
www.worldmissionsouvenirs.com
(P.S. Learn more about Ganesh on ELS Facebook next Tuesday.)