Faithful to the End: Amit Gilbert

While the world pursues to understand the why and how of Amit’s death from the Hindutvavadis’ attack on a Christian gathering two days back, I desire to write a few lines in memory of my student, brother, and friend in the Lord.

A very calm, kind-hearted, and intensely thoughtful boy, he was soon spotted by our administration to, first, help as a Monitor for the General Convention Week held in 2009, and then appointed as General Monitor for the academic year. This was his Final Year at College.

I remember him coming to my room on the last day of College. He said he just wanted to meet me in case I was already leaving and didn’t get to meet. He had been sick for a few days and was unable to write one of my exams. He also looked a bit pale from work fatigue, I supposed. But, I still discerned the glistening in his eyes and was glad that he proved to be faithful and able in the task given to him. That was the last time I saw him, and he said that he would leave for Raipur. The next time I heard of him was of a Convention near Sarni, of an attack by the Bajrang Dal, and of his death by accident of falling into a blind well while fleeing the attacks. I was shocked for a moment and the thing didn’t seem possible for a long time. It was so sudden, so early, and I felt too unnecessary. But God’s ways are etched into history and His ways are right. A lot of news, presently, in circulation needs to be verified; but, I’m sure of one thing — our brother has gone ahead of us to see the Face of our Lord. I came to know that he had just closed the Convention with the last prayer when the attack occurred. He reminds me that life is short but relationships are eternal. That is one of the reasons why we don’t hold a grudge or harbor any ill feeling against those who ignorantly count us as their enemies and persecute the unarmed children of God. Life is short but Truth lives forever. Hatred can never pull on for long; love is eternal and unending. Amit reminds me that there are a few realities of life that must never be cast aside; one of those is the reality of who we are, why we are here, and where we are going. We have an assurance that death is not the finality, that we will all meet in heaven, and that we’ll all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ on the Last Day. The way we live in this world, the realities that we believe to be true, and the way we look at each other is determined by our forgetfulness or thoughtfulness of our terrestrial, temporal framework in relation to the eternal one. One day, this framework will dissolve and the Judgment will decide whether the values we placed on ourselves and on others and our judgments regarding ourselves, people, and the world were as gold, silver, and precious stones (lasting) or as hay, stubble, and grass – for, all shall be tested by God’s fire. One another thing, among many others, that stands before me and stares into my eyes is the fact that there is a cause for which we live and die, and the cause is a serious one; it is the cause of waking the world from its self-invented and false matrix of godless reality; it is the cause of delivering the world from its bondage to iniquity; it is the cause of witnessing what God has eternally spoken to man, finally, as the only Hope through Jesus Christ, “the Author and Finisher of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

We pray for divine peace to the bereaved but blessed family of Amit Gilbert, a student of God’s Word, a faithful deacon in the Church of Jesus Christ, an evangelist, a friend, a brother, and a seed of the Church in India.

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Amil Gilbert rested on Saturday, April 17, 2010.