Some years ago, people staying in the colony I live in, in Mumbai, peeping out of their windows early in the morning, wondered why I went and stared into a black hole in the garden. That black hole in the ground is no more a hole but carved into a twenty feet deep ring well!

“Water at twenty feet?” the engineer asked, astounded with a sneer, “I have never seen this happen in the city and I should know, as I do contracts for the municipality!”

“Just dig!” I said gently to him, “We have not been given permission to dig a borewell, so let us try an old fashioned well”

“But sir, your colony is on a hill, hundreds of feet high!”

“Dig!” I said.

I knew if water was not struck, I would be answerable to the people for the money spent, but in my mind there was a picture, and the picture was of an ancient, bearded man standing by a rock and water gushing out!

Many decades ago as a four year old boy, bored, sitting in church I would open the family Bible my parents carried to church. What fascinated me were the coloured pictures, and one picture in particular was that of an old man, Moses, standing by a black rock with water gushing out; precious water much needed to quench the thirst of the Israelites following him through the desert.

I knew Moses had prayed to God for the water. “Do the same for me Lord!” I too prayed, “Let the contractor’s machine hit a rock and water flow out. If you can do it then, you can do it now Lord!”

The contractor tried with one set of machines, then a more sophisticated one, but as the machines pounded day after day into rock that was not giving in, the contractor gave up hope, and one afternoon left with his men saying, “Black rock sir, no water!”

I felt let down, but the next day, early in the morning, I peered into the hole and saw with joy a thin sliver of water coming out of the same black rock and forming a small pool. “Water!” I shouted with joy, “Lord you have given us water!”

It’s been over eleven years now. Some years ago, when even the lakes had run dry and there was hardly any water in the taps, water continued gushing out of the well! Today, there’s a lovely green garden proclaiming to everybody about the water. I’ve still kept the pictures of water trickling from the rock, the first day!

I stared at the well today and smiled, knowing a God above answers prayer, that He is not just God for Moses standing by a black rock, but a God of miracles who answers the prayers of ordinary people like you and me..!

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