In a 1990 interview Mandela rebuked Ted Koppel: Anybody who changes his principles depending on whom he is dealing, that is not a man who can lead his nation. This statement pretty much defines Mandela and sets him apart from the people we call politicians.
To call Mandela a politician is to insult him. A world leader, more appropriately a world teacher, Mandela was a gift to human race by our Father in heaven. There were only two such teachers, apart from the prophets, who had walked on this earth before—Gandhi and King. And like the two precious sons before him Mandela too was laid ineffective by the hoards of jackals that only prey in herds. What spared Mandela’s life was his decision to leave active arena of politics in his prime, because his work was not yet done.
I named a chapter in my book
One God In You And Me “Satan is the God Of This World,” just to emphasize that evil is all powerful in this world of ours, and God’s handiwork will not be done until the end of all things. Yet, by sending his favorite children among us, and letting them go through suffering and humiliation, God provides us foretaste of what Christ meant by the kingdom of heaven. Only to lift spirit of the meek with glimpses of hope when the nights of despair turn the darkest.
One such as Mandela never dies, because they bring God’s light into this world to rekindle faith and humanity, and they light a billion souls with their divine sparks.
