He Can't Even Remove A Tree Limb
The Hindu god who removes obstacles was no match for a tree limb.
Southern Baptist representatives Brendan and Alyson Strizek* watched from a balcony as celebrating Hindus tried to navigate a trailer-mounted image of Ganesha through a narrow alley. A low tree limb soon blocked the 10-foot idol’s progress. The crowd, unable to back the trailer out of the alley, tried in vain to sever the tree limb so the idol could proceed.
“It took them about 45 minutes to figure out what to do,” Brendan Strizek said. Finally, a child removed the top of the makeshift temple covering Ganesha, barely giving the idol enough room to pass under the tree limb en route to a time of worshipping the idol, also known by the names Ganapati and Ganesh.
“If that’s not the perfect picture,” Alyson Strizek said. “They’re expecting this god to remove obstacles in their lives, but he can’t even remove a tree limb.”
Hindus widely revere the elephant-headed Ganesha as the god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune. He is the remover of obstacles in their lives and devotees invoke Ganesha’s name to bring success to any venture.
The Strizeks said they feel a deep burden for the people they see worshipping a god that cannot save them.
“There’s a lot of disappointment that they would devote so much of themselves, so much of their time and money, to something that is just clay,” Brendan Strizek said. “It’s obvious it’s not living, and there is no response back from this clay statue -- but they are still devoted to it.”
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*Names changed.