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Unforgettable Reflections - Cuban Christian devotional website!
Unforgettable Reflections - Cuban Christian devotional website!
Category:
Religion
Publisher: Cuban Christian writer
ISBN-10: 0987901117
Type: Non-Fiction
Pages: 132
Copyright: 2008, Copyright Office, United States of America
ISBN-13: 9780987901118
Price: $1.99 (eBook)
Roberto Ornan Roche, a Christian writer from Cuba, is an internationally recognized author with stories published in English and Spanish.
Some years ago I wrote a series of stories. I wrote them without thinking about publishing them, much less to share this set of stories with so many people; I only experienced that with my closest friends and some relatives.
Little by little those stories were increasing, not only in number but also concerning the amount of personal feelings and creative and fancy options that were able to get out of my own heart. Then a Pastor from the Dominican Republic, who placed on me his confidence, prayers and support, encouraged me to continue writing them, with the fact that they could be good to help others.
My life was full of sadness. I could see people everywhere receiving apparently undeserved miracles, but my miracle seemed to be completely impossible, without understanding that a miracle was also happening to me. The sort of facts that I was waiting for, events of the past thought to be dead that could revive again in the present, never really happened, but outstanding things did, so I could change my life and see many other good things.
Then, one day I gathered all those stories into a book which I entitled "The Lighthouse of Asaph", because I like lighthouses a lot, and the name of Asaph due to a man of the Bible who was sad and discouraged. That biblical name had been engraved on my mind when one night one of the young people of my church came to visit me accompanied by others. He wanted to encourage me spiritually and used an illustration based on Asaph. I used to visit lighthouses of Cuba and made reports for pleasure; and as the lighthouses are generally associated with the guide of Jesus for us, I made the decision to use that allegory.
Every year, when arriving the terrible and threatening hurricanes of the Caribbean, I lose sleep and the happiness, fearing that the strong winds could pull up the trees that my father planted almost forty years ago; some of them are already rootless, but there are still many in foot and this fact is one of the best memories that I have of him. Many times my mother and I were praying next to the door while the wind blew irresistibly outdoors. When I think of something like that, I also imagine that our faith can be considered as trees which are looked after by other people, new ones can be planted as renovated reasons and good actions and ideals to be fed, comparable with lovely kept seeds of those old demolished trees. A new way to rescue the faith from the mean of the pain that exists around us may be thought as well.
Many times my memories and thoughts transformed into dry leaves, then they were gathered as ashes, but one day, miraculously, all those ideals began to hold testimonies, varied texts and memories that could be good for others to begin again. It was not a simply personal game of learning how to use words but of reviving myself when using them.
Essays:
1. Foreword
2. The Perfect Story (Published by In Touch Magazine, Dr. Charles Stanley Ministries)
3. A Special Feeling
4. Rejecting Job
5. Jesus
6. The Hug of David
7. Dinning with The Lord
8. The Drafts of Samson
9. Sand in my Eyes
10. A Red Sea for a Lifetime
11. Simply the Best
12. The Friendship's Secret
13. The Miracle of the Time
14. The Last Sheep
15. The Trains of Life
16. The Lighthouse of Asaph
17. The Wheel of Life
18. The Only Play
19. My Helmsman
20. Abandoned Baggage
21. The Mountain
22. My Place
23. Life of Promises: an Eternal Blessing
24. Unexpectedly
25. The Christian Runner
26. Elim was on Sight
27. A Vessel Forever
28. The Man That Ate Poppies
29. Let us Start Living from His Love!
30. Restoration
31. Roofs
32. What God Makes...
33. A Prayer for a Wound
34. The Evil Chef
35. The Blind Angel
Excerpt
The Perfect Story
By Roberto Ornan Roche
They wanted the “perfect” story, without miracles and without churches, so that sin did not seem so bad, nor the Christians so good; where the suffering one, the abandoned one, and the ordinary one did not count. A story to give meaning to the vanity of the World and to open the doors equally to all the experiences.
They wanted clearly understood the reason why evil covers and overcomes good so easily; the reason why the man who has abandoned his wife can hardly remember her affection, her tender care, and her love without measure; and while she is thinking that she is present in his mind, she is for him only a vagrant and uncomfortable memory that never appears in the most meritorious moments of the day.
They wanted a story full of peace and harmony; with a God who does not abide by all His promises; and with many children who claim not to believe in Him; but with capable men who are willing to substitute Him with their songs.
They intended a story of long roads without shade, all of them built by man's hands and with the blood of others, they also intended to step on the grass without noticing the dead butterflies. They thought the forbidden fruit would be a trophy, and the mantle of iniquity that human beings take inside would be similar to their own freedom.
They imagined a story where sinners and their blasphemies were applauded and fully accepted because there are always new rights to conceive. A story of new experiences, without prodigal children, which never forgives the past, and follows a new road without looking backwards. A story where errors did not count and they were taken as lived experiences.
They wanted a story without tears or pain, without cancer, without thorns or angels.
They wanted a story without me, without my brethren, without regrets or redemption; a story without Heaven.
They wanted a “perfect” story, without Psalms, a Godless eternity, but they only had the story of the Saviour who died on the cross of the Calvary, and they did not really like that story very much.
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