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Our Father GodMy son, daughter and I said good-bye to the Christian brothers and sisters in our home meeting to immigrate to the United States on August 8 (Father's Day in Taiwan), 1996. This was also the day that my son was admitted to the Civil Engineering program in Taiwan University. We arrived in Bellevue, Washington, and a brother in Christ was there to receive us at the airport. In our first month in the U.S., we experienced the same kind of small group local church as the one we experienced in Taipei. We felt warm in this new, unfamiliar environment. We had joy in the midst of our anxieties. However, my son cared deeply for his father, who had to stay in Taiwan for work, and insisted on returning to Taiwan. He said, “Poor dad. He is alone in the house. My high school friends are also waiting for my return. I want to go to the two-year military training like everyone else after I graduate from the University.” I agreed with him. On the day of his departure, I watched as a Christian brother's car, with my son in it, went out of sight as it turned around the corner. The longing for my son spread silently and overwhelmingly like the darkness at the corner where the car disappeared out of sight. Tears streamed down my face. August 8th was Father's Day. It was reasonable that my son went back to be with his dad. However, he would not be part of the experiences that his sister and I went through in the U.S. We could only look at the same sun and moon that they were also looking at in Taipei. Is this all we had? If this was true, then we had come to a dead end in our human life. On the other hand, God's way unfolded before us. It rained hard on January 1, 1997. A Christian brother of the local church in Bellevue helped us move into a house near the University of Washington that another brother had located for us. A few days after our settling down, another brother's household also moved here from New York. In the spring of 1997, “Hua” home meeting commenced. This “home meeting of the lambs” was prepared by our heavenly Father for me and for the Christian brothers and sisters living in the University of Washington area. Because of this, I stopped crying and put my son's baby shoes on the wall. Not long after that, my son sent a wonderful letter from Taipei, asking me to sing Chinese Hymn 303: On that Day we can no longer feel the healing touch over our heartbreak There will be endless praise, but no desperate prayer with tears There will be no comfort in our pain and sorrow, and no dependence born through hardship On that Day there will be crown with glory unspeakable, but no cross to be obedient to We can only have fellowship with the crushing blow that He had endured for us on this day We can no longer find weariness after we entered into rest; there will be no chance to partake of His sufferings We can no longer endure trials for Him or give up happiness for Him My prayer was, “Lord, please have mercy on a sinner like me, limited in my small world. Your face, Your unlimited love, Your glorious image were known through these times for blessing, passing opportunities. I am brought into deeper union with You through all these.” Since 1997, KBLE Seattle 1050 radio broadcasts at 10 AM every day the Genesis Life-study provided by Witness Lee. In the program, brothers and sisters in Christ sang Hymn 603 (Hymns #837 in English) on God's heart's desire, His resting place: We praise Thee, Lord, for Thy great plan, That we Thy dwelling place may be Thou live in us, we filled with Thee. Thou in the sons expressed might be. From the radio program, I found out that in Genesis 28, when Jacob fled his father's house, God revealed to Jacob a heavenly ladder and Jacob called the place Bethel, house of God. This shows that when we are homeless, God is also homeless. What is God's house? What is our house? 1 Timothy says that the church, composed of all Christ's believers, is the house of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth. The church is built by the living God through His word of grace (Acts 20:32). For me, who was seeking God earnestly, God was found in the church. In the church of God I experienced the cherishing and nourishing of Christ (Ephesians 5:29). Eventually, I will come to a stage of maturity in life after going through a journey like the one Jacob went through in Genesis 28 to 48. At that time I will release shining praise to God: God is the God who shepherded me my whole life `till this day Yes, God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Yes, God is the One who revealed Himself to Moses: I am the God of your fathers Yes, God is our God God is not ashamed of being called “our God” by His children on the earth. He has prepared a city that we can long for a better heavenly country (Hebrews 11:16). We are but sojourners on this earth. God will dwell with man, and there will be no more separations and tears. I remember the later years of my father. He was a little crippled and was no longer the image of the strong father that I remembered. Who could I depend on? Who could be there for my father to turn to? I experienced knowing God as my Father like I never experienced before on Father's Day in 1996. Today, after three years, the message in the radio broadcast has touched me as a mother in a foreign land. When I think about this, tears of joy streamed down my face again. Finished in the night of full-moon before Father's Day, 1999 G. L. | Back to List |
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