We were at my aunt’s home in Malaysia, just hanging out with her family. Mikaela, our daughter, was probably about six years old at the time. She noticed that my then teenaged cousin was wearing a strange object around his neck and she asked to take a closer look. “What is that?” she asked him. He replied that it was a special talisman that had been blessed at a Chinese temple and that it protected him from evil spirits.
Mikaela pondered this and then looked at him and said “That is just a piece of wood with some carvings on it, and it cannot protect you from anything. Only Jesus Christ can protect you!” I was sitting close by and witnessed the whole incident, and I was struck by the simplicity and boldness of Mikaela’s pronouncement – out of the mouths of babes! That would be something I would think quietly in my head, but not dare say out loud in such a manner. But it was effective, because it was sincere and my cousin was not offended because he and Mikaela trusted each other. Their relationship allowed such truths to be spoken and received with grace.
When I was growing up in Malaysia, I remember having similar talismans with me. They were yellow pieces of paper with Chinese characters handwritten on them. My mother would obtain these talismans from the temple and sew them into little cloth bags which we carried with us everywhere we went, as protection from evil spirits. I would go to the temple with my mother, and pray to the gods for good grades, safety and material wealth.
The gods seemed capricious to me, and I never quite knew where I stood with them. Did we bring enough offerings? Was I good enough? Good enough to merit a blessing?
Love – how does love fit in the picture? Sacrifice? The concept of a god that loved you so much that he would sacrifice his life for you? Alien, absolutely alien. Love was something people had for each other, but it was not something between us and the gods.
But God had a plan for me, even though I had no concept of who He was at the time. My parents, who were/are practicing Buddhists/Taoists, sent me to a Catholic girls’ school run by Irish nuns. Blame that on the Chinese passion for education. There, with girls who were Hindu, Muslim and even Christian, we went to catechism, along with learning how to read and write.
I remember the feeling of calm and peace whenever I entered the little chapel in the school. It was a sharp contrast with the smoky, often noisy and frenetic pace at the temple. There were statues of Mary and Jesus and, in my mind, these were equivalent to the gods at the temple. God took that and went further.
He put a friend in my life that started inviting me to the youth fellowship activities at her Methodist church. Her name was Grace. I initially went because it was all games and fun, and the kids were really friendly. But there was also something about Grace that intrigued me and heightened my curiosity about Christians. It wasn’t so much what she said, but what she did and how she was as a person.
Looking back, I can see that she was my first example of how a Christian testifies boldly – not so much with big loud words, but with a whole way of life that spoke volumes. And when she did speak of her faith, it was grounded with love and a genuine desire for the best for me and presented in the context of a real relationship. It was not ego (“I really like how I managed to slide in that little snippet about going to church in my chat with so-and-so”) nor was it just a task list (“How many heathens can I convert today?”).
That was a long time ago, and “much water has gone under the bridge.” I am further along on my walk with God, but not quite there yet. Along the way, I pray that I can take my turn to be “Grace” to my fellow travelers.
