But now my eyes see you

Many of us were raised in religious settings in our homes. In Cuba there is talk of a popular religiosity. That concoction of religions where the traditional came from Africa and the animism arrived from France by the hand of Allan Cardec, merges with the apostolic-Roman creed and is much more complicated with the insertion of sects and secret societies - also African inheritances and European -. In my childhood the alphabet began with the cross of Christ. The children said Christ, A, B, C, D ... and so on until we reached Z. Christ first and then the letters. As in all of Latin America, the average Cuban was religious. When we visited our grandparents, it was almost obligatory to ask the elderly for their blessing before leaving. -The blessing grandmother-. -God bless you-. Family environments were for a long time marked by that type of religiosity, but the Bible was never talked about and God turned out to be a good man who cared for people, but he was nowhere to be seen, but on the altars made by the hands of mens. It appeared at Christmas in the form of a little boy, but the rest of the year it disappeared. Any coincidence with reality and real life in your country or in another that you know? That's how I remember it and this is very personal.

Then the atheistic airs came to my land and things got ugly. Believing in God was an offense to materialism and its gods (Marx, Engels, Lenin). If you said that you believed in something out of this context, you were condemned to a miserable life, you were socially excluded. A cry like a war broke into the lives of Cubans, it was like a warning to everyone: "religion is the opium of the people", and signed a certain Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, a Russian leader who appeared in textbooks as a god embracing the workers and children with a tender and compassionate gaze.

As in a good part of this world today, God was taken from the schools and from the life of man and Christ was presented to us in those years as a hero of a happy ending, unreal and mystical novel. Man instituted laws and resolutions to supplant the Law of God, but it was of no use. At least in Cuba, Christians say today: God never left this land. Today, Christianity (that of the lordship of Christ unaccompanied and no other) is strengthened every day and the growth that God has brought about is remarkable. The country's own authorities estimate that just over 10% of Cubans are faithful and organized Christians, and this means that there are more than 1 million on a small Caribbean island with just 11 million people.

God has glorified himself in man's adventure by denying or substituting him. These days a Census is taking place in my country. Before - in previous Censuses in Cuba - the census taker had to answer a question on the required forms: - Do you have (or practice) any religious beliefs? Which?-. Today, that question seems to be not very important because if it were asked, there could be many surprises.

There are still many societies that pride themselves on being Christian, but they have stayed in what they have heard from God and lost the vision of the almighty. I hope it is a temporary bad as it was in Cuba. I was one of those who knew about God only by hearsay but hadn't seen Him until He noticed me just 10 years ago. I was so in need! I climbed the sycamore tree of grace to watch him pass (how many times he passed by me and I hid so he wouldn't see me!) And the miracle happened.

On October 10, Christians in Cuba have celebrated the National Day of Prayer for the Spiritual Salvation of Cuba. I invite you to remember us in your prayer. I will also be praying for the nations that lost their eyes to see Christ, or for those who have never had them to see him walk on the edge of their destinies. That one day they can say like Job: I had heard of you from hearsay, but now my eyes see you. Therefore I take it back, and repent in dust and ashes. (Job 42: 5-6). I did, and since then, despite stumbles in my walk with Christ, my eyes have "seen" him more than once. For those who believe in God and love him by faith, his presence becomes visible.

May He bless you!