My Uncle Tom

I read the book Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe about seven years ago, and I am still being inspired by it to this day. I think about Uncle Tom often and his consistent ability to live in the spiritual world--somewhere beyond his physical body and mind--and his ability to completely immerse himself in the person of Jesus Christ. I ask myself, "What would Uncle Tom do in this situation? How would he go beyond? He is a constant inspiration for me as I try to become ABSOLUTELY and ENTIRELY God's. An unfortunate life taught Uncle Tom the eternal value of loving Jesus and reflecting God's glory.

When Tom is sold away from his cheery little home on the plantation of a generous Master, he starts running toward his only Hope--Jesus. In one scene in the book, Uncle Tom is wrenched from his family and his kind master and is put upon a steamship headed for unknown places. Falling asleep, Tom has a dream where he hears little Eva (his former master's daughter) reading to him from the Bible. He could hear her voice: "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, Thy Saviour."

A little later, Tom was writhing under the cruel lashes of his new owner. "But the blows fell only upon the outer man, and not, as before, on the heart. Tom stood submissive; and yet Legree could not hide from himself the fact that his power over his victim had gone. As Tom disappeared in his cabin, and Legree wheeled his horse suddenly round, there passed through the tyrant's mind one of those vivid flashes that often send the lightning of conscience across the dark and wicked soul. He understood full well that it was God who was standing between him and Tom, and he blasphemed Him!"

Tom knew that his only real power and hope in this world lay not in the toughness of his body but in the tenderness of his spirit--and in the strength of God's Holy Spirit within that beaten body. The Power that Tom held from within made him impervious to the blows from without.

"Therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."

Ephesians 6:13