Gift in the Mail Package

It is still fresh in my memory. Sitting in the "jet propulsion" position, I listened to his denouncing about me.

By Guang Yue

Before last Christmas, I received a package in the mail unexpectedly. In a hurry to figure out what it was, I forgot the warning about not to open an unknown package in this terrorism-ridden age.

It was a book after I unwrapped it. Even though the front cover, adorned with golden thread, was torn, I still recognized it, the compact Bible that I had kept for almost twenty years. Once opened, my name, inscribed some fifty years ago, jumped into my sight. The red 'X' mark in the name suddenly transformed into a cross.

This Bible is of the same age as I, published by the Bible Association in 1941. In the front, it was written: semicolon is marked as "pointed note", comma "dot", period "little circle", quotation mark "double hooks", parentheses "explanation mark." At the time when owing a Bible was enough evidence of a crime, I hid in a mosquito net in the summer reading it, underneath a cotton quilt in the winter using a flashlight. While the Bible was supposed to be read at the desk in the open, it became "underground reading" for many years.

Inside the book out slipped a bookmark of dried lotus leaf, besides preventing bugs, it gave mild fragrance from time to time. I often kissed it after reading the Bible. To my surprise, the bookmark was totally intact without any damage. I couldn't help but to give it a kiss. It was still as fragrant as thirty years ago.

A note along with the bookmark said: "I am your student, originally Wei-Dong Chang, now John Chang. It is your Bible I read that made me accept Jesus to be my Savior. In church's term, I am a fruit of yours .... I very much treasure this Bible. I believe that you loved it even more. Before I went abroad, I obtained your address in the U.S. from an old classmate. This treasure is finally coming home to roost, and I am returning it back to you in the mail as a Christmas gift."

I read his familiar handwriting again and again. His voice started to sound in my ears, and his image surface in front of my eyes.

In 1966, my house was raided by the Red Guard. I did not remember whether he was among them. But, it was still fresh in my memory, I was forced into the position of a "propulsion" jet (Editor's note: with head bowed and body bent, the persecuted had his both arms twisted straight in the back) to listen to his accusation of me. He revealed that I promoted Ding Ling's "One Book Theory." He claimed that I trained him to be my successor in vain to revive capitalism. I still remembered, under the watch of the military guard, reading his "big letter" report. He criticized Christianity as "spiritual opium of imperialism to invade China." He fiercely scolded me as obstinate, still holding the Bible after ten some years of labor camp imprisonment, sucking "spiritual opium" .... Every word every sentence pierced my heart so much that I could still recite.

Besides the compact Bible in the package, there was a magnifying glass in a small box with four beautifully tidy hand-written words "Your forgiveness and my repentance", signed not by John Chang, but Wei-Dong Chang, his original name.

With the magnifying glass in hand, I read through this long-time-no-see bible. Being three-inch long, two-inch wide, one-and-half-inch deep, it is by no means compact by today's standard. Even though the font was bigger, without the magnifying glass, my eyes are not what they were before. I don't know how many times I read John's note. He must have believed that I treasured this Bible more than he did; but I believe that he treasured it more than I did.

Therefore, after I have read it through once, I mailed this long lost Bible, even though Christmas was over by many days, to my student, now my brother in the Lord, John Chang.

The author now resides in San Francisco.