彩虹小品

By :  Paul Lai

Translator: Wings Yeung

One day I received an e-mail which read:

“It took me a long time to finish your book, “Rainbow after Rain,” because every time I read it, tears would come because I am so touched by it.  I would have to stop.

It is painful to read about the daily suffering that Mrs. Lai goes through.  I truly believe that it is because of the reliance the two of you have in God that the physical pain was bearable. Compared to Job in the Bible, the two of you are more blessed.  Job had to face all his suffering alone as his wife did not have the same heart as him.  She asked Job to turn his face away from God.  But you and Mrs. Lai share each others’ burden and suffering.  Though you may not have the material reward that Job received from God, He has definitely poured His blessings out upon you two.  And wherever your work has taken you, it has also become a blessing to believers and non believers alike. We cannot imagine the number of people who have accepted Christ because of it. 

Back to myself, my life is not exciting.  My father passed away before I was born. I have always been by myself ever since my birth.  I do not have a place I call home.  I never complain, nor have I felt like anything was missing.  Looking back, I know that God has prepared everything for me.  After working for 20 years, God has helped me make the decision to take an early retirement.  Whenever I am in pain, I will remember the suffering that you and Mrs. Lai have been through, it will give me strength and faith to experience God.” 

I read this letter, and have read her praises, but I felt horrible.  Why did she say we are more blessed than Job?  How can she compare us to Job!  Then I realized that what she meant was that Job’s wife and my wife are very different.  Seeing Job’s body filled with boils, Job’s wife told him to leave his God and die.  But my wife and I are able to walk together in our misery, sharing our burdens together.  This after all is what a marriage is, and so to love each other the way we did was a most natural way for us; it was not difficult.

I remember my wife always telling me that the most touching moment in a Christian wedding is when the officiator asks, and the couple replies that together they vow “for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish…” and then saying “I do”. This part always touched her heart and tears would flow.   

She said that for two people with different personalities and different backgrounds to be united in God is truly a miracle, but for the two to hold onto the love ‘til death is even more of a miracle.  Without God’s guidance or His will that the two are united, then it would not be a marriage blessed by God.  She is right and I agree with her completely.  This is the truth