The Window Blew Open

By Ying Fong

One winter night about six years ago, an elderly brother took me to a house group meeting out in the countryside. When we arrived, an old white haired lady opened the door for us. She gave us little stools to sit on in a corner of her house.

The little house was about 16 foot square. In the centre, there were several rows of long benches. At the front, there was a lectern for the speaker. The brother standing at the lectern was about 30 or 40 years old. He held a Bible in his hand. Beside him, a sister sat at an electronic keyboard. There were about twenty or thirty people in the meeting.

That day the brother spoke about I. Samuel 15:22: "......To obey is better than sacrifice and to heed is better than the fat of rams." It was a splendid message.. Then the sister led us in a few hymns before the meeting finished.

When the meeting was dismissed, everyone left the house quietly. Almost no one was joking or chit-chatting. I had enjoyed it all so much that I was in no hurry to go. The elderly brother reminded me that it was time to get ready to leave. As we walked to the door, I asked the elderly brother, "This meeting has touched me deeply. Has the brother who preached been trained in seminary?" Then he shared with me what had happened in this family.......

A young couple had been in love with each other for three years and were getting ready to get married. The girl brought the boy home for her mother to meet him. Mother told him, " We're all believers in Jesus. If you do not believe in Jesus you can't marry my daughter."

The young man promised, "I will become a believer." So he started coming to his future mother-in-law' home to attend the house meeting. The girl's mother also gave him a lot of Bible verses to memorize.

After 6 months, the couple finally got married. But the son-in-law soon stopped coming to the house group meetings and also gave up memorizing the Bible verses. He came up with a whole lot of excuses.

Two years later, they had a little baby boy. The little fellow was quite adorable and very bright. All the neighbors loved him. Every morning, as they cycled to work, they would drop the child off at day care. He was a delightful child. If he met neighbourhood friends on their way to day-care, he would call out hello to them. On the way home, some neighbors would even wait at the doorway to give the child some candies. This little boy brought much joy to his family and a sense of harmony to the whole community.

When the boy was three years old, one day he came down with a high fever. After several days of fever, they took him to to Hwa-Shan hospital in Shan-Hi. There he was diagnosed with leukemia. The parents almost collapsed at this shocking news. On bended knees they implored the doctor to save their child. The doctor replied, "We will do our best."

The treatment costs were quite high as the medicine was imported. The child's parents declared, "No matter what sacrifice it entails, we will do it to save our child." Although the doctor had tried his best and the parents had sold everything of value they had to care for the child, one year later he departed this life.

Their home was no longer filled with laughter, but with silent tears. The neighborhood became quiet. All the neighbors grieved for the loss of the child. Every morning, the parents still cycled past on their way to work, but the gorgeous child who used to be carried on the bike was gone. How could you not feel the loneliness and sadness of this change? After coming home from work, the father would sit on the sofa and read the newspaper and the mother would knit, while grandmother did the cooking in the kitchen. They had nothing to say to each other. So life went on, day after day.

In order not to cause pain at reminders of the little lad, his grandmother decided to put away all the child's things. However, she did not do a thorough job. One day, while the father was flipping through his piles of newspapers, a little book fell out onto the floor. When he saw the book, he could not hold back his tears and started to weep. It was a book he had bought for his son so he could learn to read. The mother also started to cry, while tears rolled down grandmother's cheeks. Their suppressed emotions finally exploded that day.

While the three of them were crying, a gust of wind blew the window open. The father got up to close the window. There was a Bible was on the desk by the window and the gust of wind had blown it open. Suddenly the father saw that on that page of the Bible were the familiar words: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

On reading the verse, the father wept even louder. He picked up the Bible and took it over to show his wife and mother-in-law: "I have read this verse so many times and even memorized it once. But it has never touched me so deeply as today. The pain of a father at the loss of a child is difficult to comprehend unless you have experienced it yourself.

My son's life was taken away by disease. No matter how unwilling I was to let him go, he eventually left us. But our heavenly Father willingly let his only sinless Son die for us. He, too, has a father's heart, but out of His love for us and in order to save us, he was willing to suffer so much pain. Who can understand the grief He suffered in giving up his Son? So how can we reject His grace for us?"

This verse dried away the tears of the grandmother, the father, and the mother.

The brother who gave the message at the house meeting was that father. It was the mother who led the singing, and the grandmothe was the elderly lady who gave us the little stools to sit on !

The author now lives in China.