自分と漢字との付き合いについてまた少し分かち合ってもいいですか。
It's my son Keima's birthday today. For his drawing this month, I did "Kanji Art" based on the two kanjis, Honor and Truth, that make up his first name.
Hopefully, the drawing shows Truth spreading out his hands to protect his fleeing parents whom he loves and Honors, as they are assaulted by life's flames. I'd e-mailed this thank-you to him and pray God would continue to use him thusly.
I went through a period of adjustment during my teen years, when I needed a bit of family encouragement to get me back to being the best I could be. I remember having greasy hair, being overweight, not remembering to wash my face and brush my teeth, hating to take a bath--and hating to get out once I got in there, never being on time, not knowing or caring how to match clothes, probably much, much more...but have absolutely no recollection of any of family saying anything. They're all things I told myself.
And when I tried to work on improving one area, I realized I was letting another area go, or forgetting to take my medicine—we were working on a health problem--or not practicing my piano or doing my homework, or keeping up with my friends at school, and of course, my spiritual life was struggling (but actually, I think I had to depend on God so much during this period; I recognize many verses now from having lived through them).
I’d done this for so long, even after I decided to stop,
I couldn’t stop the rock beat from going through my head!
But it was frustrating to the max. At that age, I often went to a corner where I wouldn't be found, turned to a radio station that gave me acid rock, got lost in my own world. I tried not to let the family know how much I was doing this—could they tell?
It was one of these times I heard Mommy looking for me (yes, I could hear her calling) and went down the basement steps a little. I'd been standing at the back screen door, ready to run. I gave this testimony before, so I will not repeat details.) Mommy came and found me. I told her, without looking up, I didn't deserve to belong to the family. It seemed she waited an eternity before answering. I believe she was praying for wisdom to know how to answer her daughter. Then she said,
"Maybe you don't. Maybe you don't deserve to belong to the family." That hit like a ton of bricks. Mommy, what are you saying? "But can any of us say we deserve to belong to the family of God?" That night, Mommy didn't try to encourage me by saying of course I was family or she loved me; she had me look at ONE WHO LOVED ME NO MATTER WHAT.
"He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." The truths I had known and verses I had quoted before, she brought home again that night at the kitchen table. I cried. I can't say things changed overnight; they didn't. But little by little, things improved, and I think of that day as the turning point of taking my eyes off myself and putting them onto the One Who loved me.
Yes, missionary parents need wisdom to raise their children, and missionary kids need prayers that they find the Savior of life then plaster their heart-eyes on Him.
Once I heard an illustration that if you take a warm coal and set it off by itself, it would soon grow cold. It was meant to show that Christianity was never meant to be lived out alone but with others
The illustration merely shows the heat was the “glow” taken from other Christians—it only proves it when it grows cold if left by itself. If our source of joy and is God the Father as many Christians claim, not from the gathering of others, then even after solitary confinement of 20 years, that “coal” should not grow cold.
In fact, jailers should wonder why the glowing does not weaken!
Perhaps, if they were to look into that prison cell, they would see it was not an ember of inanimate rock that got thrown in there, but a fly that possessed a living light deep inside it all its own.
Those fireflies are known to be real pests, the jailer has heard, but they sure are pretty when they glow in the dark.
I mentioned visiting Oak Pak in my July 29 post, but all I said there was that I'd played on the girls' all-black basketball team at the high school there. I didn't mention the unique family devotions interruption that we began to expect after that one day in the 23225 Berkley living room. How could I have forgotten?
I once heard the story of a family who was moving to a new neighborhood. They had spent hours packing and were on the road traveling to their new home when they heard the youngest girl in the back seat crying. After some persuading, she finally told them she'd forgotten her favorite doll. The family members looked at each other, knowing she had it with her wherever she went, and nothing could possibly take the place of that doll--although it was only a rag doll, it was her best friend. They went back and got it. It wasn't because of the doll--it was not a collector's item, beautiful, or valuable in itself...but it meant the world to Lucy; and her heart was such a dear thing to that family. Sometimes our Heavenly Father does something, not because He values it, or needs it for Himself, but because He knows it will bring joy to our hearts, and WE are precious to Him.
1. MYRRH – Everyone immediately thinks of this one first, probably because it was one of the gifts given Jesus at his birth, also because it is the ointment put on His body in preparation for burial. It was also the fragrance the king put on the handle when the Shulamite wouldn’t get up to open the door for him.
2. SPIKENARD – This was the costly ointment in the alabaster box Mary of Bethany broke over Jesus’ head and had the aroma fill the house, then wiped His feet with her hair. Judas’ criticism of the money not going to the poor? Jesus practically disregarded his words, saying, “Leave her alone; she is Mine.” I’d love to be defended like that! I forget: He does.
3. HYSSOP – “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean,” David said. God doesn’t demand we become flawless jewels, just clean; what a merciful, accepting, wise, loving Father! This one made me super-happy because so often I feel like I haven’t done a “thorough” job, and God has to remind me sometimes I try to be a perfectionist when He tells us to clean up, not perfect up.
The following isn’t compact, as it hasn’t been thought through yet or polished in any way but pretty much put into writing as soon as the thoughts came:
l (Yes, “be ye perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” is the aim, but what we actually do in going about to attain that end is to be clean!)
(The human “perfectionist”, if you really examine the walk, often neglects the mundane discipline of cleaning for “more meaningful” duty. This Christian is actually blind to his own lack of holiness! Yes, this is pointing its finger at me.)
l (Some mistake God’s mercy and longsuffering of the sinner as his acceptance of their sin. His abhorrence of sin does not change. But sinful man will never completely comprehend how a perfectly pure God can tolerate wickedness at the same time, so many finite computers say we need to be accepting of others’ weaknesses. This is NOT, however, a right conclusion…
This is very difficult to put down in writing. Limited human beings CANNOT completely duplicate what an unlimited God does, including love “wholly”—I still don’t know how to put it.
l We have to, as humans on this side of glorification, love the people for following God, hate them for sinning; do the same in our own lives: be recklessly intolerant of sin to any degree; and uncompromisingly, hurryingly move towards all that is godly…as “extreme” as people may accuse it to be, the older I get, the more I am persuaded that it is never half as much as it ought to be, and no human being will ever die feeling he overdid it, in fact, EVERY SINGLE HUMAN BEING, once he hits the spirit world of eternity, will think, “Why did I waste so much time on frivolities?!” It’ll be too late then to do anything.
l But Our Fairest Lord Jesus will then wipe every tear from every eye and let us know it is all right; He has paved the way for existence in good forever and ever!
Anyway, this started out with Sweet-smelling Myrrh. I think it’s ending up Life-giving Water.
Here are a few more in both languages--I wasn't sure if I'd posted it in English or not. The idea came to me when it started sprinkling as I was going home after finishing up my pool-walk exercise.
One morning when I asked my Alma Mater’s Alumni Association to help me get in touch with a former roommate, I was told: “Unfortunately, we do not have any current contact information about her on our database.”
She's not in the records? My freshman year in college, my junior roommate had encouraged me. When I stayed out of school sick, she kept writing. And when I graduated and left for the mission field in 1985, her parents supported me. My sister decided to dig deeper.
We found out my roommate had herself become a missionary to Togo, West Africa, and after serving there a while had also gone to a school in Alaska, where she was honored as Teacher of the Year 2000. She was married and traveled with her husband in the Coast Guards until hospitalized with brain tumor her last few years on earth, and she went to Glory in 2012.
The alumni association was informed of the above information about their graduate…although no longer in their database, perhaps.
But a staff worker sent a thank you message immediately: “It is so encouraging to hear that she lived out her life as passionately for the Lord, as she did while in college. It is truly amazing how God so graciously uses us to reach into the lives of those around us for the glory of His name. And I pray that I live as faithfully and lovingly. At the end of the day that is all that I can do, take each day as a gift, and not squander the opportunities that He gives to lovingly touch those lives that intersect with my own.”
Our God keeps eternal records.
My daughter wanted to run an errand at the post office and put her baby in a sling and began to get things together she'd need to go, but he started to fuss. She looked at the time, thinking she couldn't feed him now--she had to go--so she fixed up a bottle of formula and asked if I'd feed him while she was gone, putting him down in the crib. I put the bottle up to his mouth, but he refused to open it. That's not how he acts when he's hungry. My daughter saw and laughed. He didn't want milk; he just wanted to talk with Gramma! I put the cap on the bottle and put the bottle on the table and thought I saw my grandson grin. His mommy left, and we had a nice little chat--well, he was gooing, and I was agreeing with all my heart--until he remembered it really was time for his milk. And I gave him his bottle then, which he drank from heartily; but he was a happy baby the whole time his mommy was gone!
I thought of how it would make God feel if HE knew I just wanted to talk with HIM?!
数年前、具志川バプテスト教会の青年たちと交わっていたとき、埼玉県にある岩槻市の公園の昆虫を眺めているときに思ったことを少し分かち合いました：
人間の心理学・経済・教育・政治・哲学・宗教などを、本能で機能する昆虫に、理解してもらおうと、だれも思わない。かえって、そんなことを期待する方がおかしいし、いくらあたまのいい虫でも、人のことは知ろうとしても、これは絶対無理だと、だれもわかる。だけど、被造物同士に「絶対無理」だと断言することなのに、どうして無限の創造主の神は理解して納得しないと信じないという人間がいるのかな。
神様がすべてのことを定めいるが、人間にすべてのことを祈れと言う。神様は悪と苦しみを憎んでいるが、その罪を犯し、他の人を苦しめる人を愛していると言う。神様は天国を準備したみたいだが、恐ろしい地獄も作った（これが最も嫌われている教え）と言う。～ん、この神様、信じられるか、わからない。
ちょっとまった。昆虫が、本能を理解する限られた能力で人間界を分析し、私たちの存在価値を認めるようなものだよね。
人間界のことを認める・認めないの問題でなく、ハチは蜜をあつめて・飛び回って・成長していけばいい。私たちも全知全能の神様を理解しようとしたり評価したりするのではなく、目の前の自分の罪を悔い改め、聖書に従い変えられ、天に着く日まで愛の手をしっかり握っていけばいい。
「主はあなたに告げられた。人よ。何がよいことなのか。主は何をあなたに求めておられるのか。それは、ただ講義をおこない、誠実を愛し、へりくだってあなたの神とともに歩むことではないか。」 （ミカ書６：８）
If someone were to make a robot that could walk and talk, maintain balance, right itself if it fell, learn several different languages, and respond to questions, probably everybody would respond to whoever invented that model as having done a great work. Actually, there is such a robot already in Japan that can walk and adjust to inclines…the robot “Asimo” has created quite a stir in Japan.
The roommate mentioned in a previous day's devotional "Which Records" related the following truth to me. I recalled it when hearing another Christian speak of how she wanted to praise the Lord for the grace He showed her in times of trial, but she lamented when weaker Christians around her seemed to focus on her spirituality instead of focusing on God
"Have you heard of 'spot bowling'? " my roommate had asked me; "sometimes, God bends down and makes it easier for us to reach Him." And she taught me the following:
April 2022
Have you seen those little arrows halfway down the bowling lane? It seems they're there to help you aim so you don't have to think about shooting all the way down there, where the pins are. Some bowlers who've figured this out concentrate on getting their balls in the right places between the marks, and they get consistently high scores.
Aiming for "Be ye perfect as I am perfect," is WAAAY TOO unreachable for us, but sometimes God sets up little human triangles to encourage us. Aiming to be like a godly parent or Sunday School teacher or even Christian friend seems attainable, "closer", than the ultimate goal of taking on the image of Christ.
(This is where the Holy Spirit has to step in and explain to every individual it is only sometimes and not the regular way to draw near to God. In fact, placing our eyes too much on man can be dangerous! I know what I wanted to say but also how it can be misconstrued or how Satan can play havoc with truth.)
＊ｶﾜｾﾐ!−ずっと前に、岩槻公園に、カメラマンたちがいっぱい来ていたけれど、鳥がどこ か行ったと噂されると、皆いなくなった。 自分は、コンパクトカメラで近くの池でカメちゃんの撮影をしていたら、近くの岩に、神様 は、何を送ってくれたと思う？！自分のカメラには望遠レンズがない、いい写真が撮れる はずはないけれど、神様の恵みの記録でも取っておけるかなと、思い、鳥の方にカメラを 向けて、シャッターをおした。 あのカメラマン連中が、帰って来ると困るから、鳥のことは、誰にも言わなかった。
＊１か月後−体調を崩して数週間、散歩に行けなくなっちゃった。治ったあと主人と一緒 に公園に行って、池のコイを見ていた。鮮やかな青い物体が、ビュンと前を飛んで行った ような・・・主人の顔を見て、「さっきのあれ、見た？青い・・・蝶？」「鳥！」 あとを追って岩に乗っていたカワセミの写真を撮りました。でも、ズームするのを忘れて いたので、安物のカメラで撮影した鳥は、岩の上に青い色がポチャッと写っているだけで した。肉眼で美しい鳥を見た主人に、この写真はとても見せられませんでした。
＊２か月後−別の日に、少しダウンしている自分に、神様は元気づけようとしたのか、同 じ池に（別の岩）あの幸せの青い鳥を送ってくれました。今度こそズームで！カシャッ！と ころが、ズーム撮影時は、あかりがもっと必要であることを忘れていました。その時撮っ た写真は、あまりもぼやけて、何が何だか分かりません。その日、家に帰った時、主人に、 「カワセミ、またいたよ」とは言えても、証拠写真は見せられませんでした。
＊朝の散歩- 神様は、小さいカワセミを、あの望遠カメラを担いでいる連中からずっと守 って、コンパクトカメラだけの自分の前に３か月に３回も連れて来てくれた。神様って優し いしスゴイと、思いながら、２週間後の朝の散歩をしていました。その日は、なぜか、いつ ものルートの反対周りにしました。
＊裏口入門？−公園の浦口から入って、池を周って、入り口かを 出て帰るつもりでした。 池の水面の上に伸びている枝の上にのかっている青い点は、まさか、カワセミ？カシャ ッ！あ、でも青い点が鳥と説明する自分を想像して、１か月前の撮影と変わらないことに 気が付きました。 1 鳥がはっきり映るために、もっと近くから、そしてズームで撮らなければ。だけど、そのた めには光が要る。 「神様、太陽の光をお願い！そして逃げないように鳥をじっとさせてちょうだい！」必死に 祈っている自分に気が付きました。 このカメラでは、一番つよいズームでも、とても足りない。もっと近寄らないと。１２枚撮っ ちゃいました。その間、神様は太陽から必要な光を送ってくれました。そして、鳥をじっと させてくれました。
＊飛ぶサファイア- 家に帰って、フォトエディットをして、４枚ぐらい、自分が取っておきた いものができました。このカメラを買ってくれて、自分に送ってくれた従妹にベストのもの を送りました（上の話も全部伝えました）。
あ、よく考えてみると、あの鳥、３か月に４回自分に撮影されたのね。 人間は三振でアウトと思うけれど、神様は、バッターの失敗は関係ないの。 ピッチャーの投球意志次第。投げ続けたいなら、まだ大丈夫。
私たちの歩みも同じ。どんなに、今度は、もうダメだ！と思っても、大丈夫。
神様が恵みを与え続けたいなら、OKなのね。
You may remember Yoshi's husband Seiko as my Dad's cousin who went swimming in the Uken river with him when they were 5th graders. Grampa had sent the family from Canada to Okinawa during the Depression. He asked the relatives on the island to keep them while he worked alone in Canada; he would send notice when he became financially able to care for them. (They were very wealthy and able to do this quite easily.). He wrote letters regularly and sent support.
After 2 years, Grampa called for the family, so Daddy returned and had the rest of his education in Canada, but that's why when he got saved he had such a burden for his relatives in Okinawa: he had lived with and loved them. It was a strong conviction that somebody had to tell them about God’s love! If he didn't do it, who would? And the clearest image of "them" was this "Seiko Oshiro" (no relation of the Seiko watch), the husband of Yoshi.
There is so much to tell about Seiko Ojisan (Uncle). The woman Uncle Seiko married, ended up being summoned by the demons to become a priestess in the island’s ancestor worship system (the spirits actually chose and called those they wanted to be priests, it seems). They terrorized her until she met the God-Man Jesus, and our co-worker Edna Princell encouraged her to cling to Him and command the spirits in His Name to leave her alone. From that day, she was free of them. So Yoshi was gloriously saved—and everyone in the village knew about it. It was unshakable testimony of the power of the Blood!
Uncle Seiko saw this. He was one of the unbelievers who helped build the first Uken church. He let his wife come and bring his children.
But salvation has to be a personal thing: it has to be you, not just your wife and children. Uncle Seiko knew this. He’d heard it so many times. We had prayer meetings in the old wooden house.
This is a detour in memory, but a fellow MK came to a few of these meetings and would catch some insects on the house eaves. He’d press their tummies to get them to buzz, and we’d mischievously keep ourselves occupied that way during some of the adults’ long talks. I remember too when I played the portable organ and the wind kept blowing the hymn page shut, how Uncle Seiko noticed, walked over quietly, and put his lighter against the page to hold it open.
I was still in high school then and determined to pray for Uncle Seiko’s salvation from that day on. He was sitting in church one day when we began singing about heaven. The lyrics talked about looking around and seeing all the faces…and when it hit me Uncle Seiko’s wouldn’t be there, I couldn’t sing anymore but cried the rest of the song.
Why wouldn’t he get saved? It seemed to be one thing after another. Building a house. Taking care of a health problem. A big purchase in the making. An important meeting coming up.
“Uncle, when are you going to believe?”
“Oh, sometime…”
My younger sister took care of Uncle Seiko’s oldest daughter’s child in the U.S. a few years ago. His younger daughter is a hairdresser, and we go to her shop whenever we visit the island. His son however, one day got him in hot water. When under the influence of alcohol. He gambled away family property that had been in the Oshiro name for generations, bringing shame to Seiko Oshiro before the rest of the clan.
However, God’s wisdom is astounding. Being disdained by relatives was, it seemed, what Uncle Seiko needed to shake him up and convince him of God’s unconditional love. He was finally saved.
I found the next time we were in church singing about Heaven, I could sing and cry for a very different reason.UNCLE SEIKO WOULD BE THERE!
And as I mentioned before, Uncle Seiko came faithfully to church every chance he could get after that, even when most of his hearing failed and you had to sit next to him and shout in his ear for him to hear you. He came, he said, to support the preacher and well, just because it seemed the right thing to do.
Uncle Seiko doesn’t need his old lighter anymore. We don’t have meetings in his backyard anymore, and besides, we haven’t used that portable organ in quite a while either.
I saw, on YouTube, two sisters having a fight, in which the older sister hit the younger sister and accidentally kills her. Of course, when the littler one does not respond to any effort at being revived, the older one panics—she had not meant to hurt her—not really.
They’d just gotten into an argument because the younger one had taken a chocolate kiss without asking permission. The older sister tries to get the corpse to open its mouth, saying she’d give it all her kisses if she’d wake up.
I remember playing Ninja with my sister when I was a little girl, swinging around my plastic brush-comb “dagger”. I accidentally hit my sister on the temple which she covered instantly with her hands. I remember how my heart flew into my mouth at the thought I had hit her eyes and blinded her; but whew; she was all right.
Sometimes, we older sisters do really stupid things but we do love you, really. There’s only One who really does love you and never, ever does anything stupid either. Trust Him with your life, okay?
カラスたちが、「ダック」（あひる）と呼ばれることを、面白くないと思っている。一羽のカラスが自分のことを「飛べるブラック・カープ（黒い鯉）」と言い、コイの餌をよこどりしていた。そのため、その池のいきものたちはカラスのことを、「黒いあひる」と、呼ぶようになった。
あだ名はお前のせいだぞと、他のカラスに責められているカラス君。いいことを思いついて、餌をてにいれたはずなのにね。不満を感じる時、自分勝手に動くとき、よくあることだよね。
ブラック・ダックはいや。
