Beyond Death!
Across the River of Forgiveness...
I received a call from the United States.
"Mom! Do you know Professor Sam? He said he knows you. Is he someone you know?"
"Who is he?"
"He's a professor from Pakistan and he became my advisor. We were at the orientation, and he sat next to me. When I introduced myself, he was surprised and asked me more details. Then he said he knows you."
"Oh! Who could it be?"
In 1989, the place where we lived was a very poor village, affected by the aftermath of the Gulf War. Hospitals were closed, and it was difficult to find a pharmacy.
A pastor and his wife serving at a small church in the city warmly welcomed us. They took care of everything for us to safely enter the city and stood by our side.
One day, while walking back to our lodging after a service, we heard a gunshot.
“Bang!”
The second son of the local pastor, who was closing the church doors, was shot.
The peaceful situation suddenly changed completely. Someone who wanted us to leave the city shot the gun. They threatened the local people who were helping us because we, as foreigners, could not be harmed directly.
It was a tremendous shock. The gunshot and the threatening atmosphere of terror were effectively conveyed to us, signaling that we should leave the city. Moreover, being foreigners, harming us would have caused an international issue, so they terrorized those who helped us instead. We attended his funeral, unsure how to comfort them, and left the city with heavy hearts, fleeing in the dead of night without resolving anything clearly.
Twenty years later, my son, who was in my womb during that shocking night and fled to the lodging, met the eldest son of that pastor who lost his second son. They met as professor and student. More astonishingly, they sat next to each other on the day of orientation. How could such a thing happen? How could two people, connected yet living unknowingly on opposite ends of the earth, meet as teacher and student? It was as if someone had planned for them to sit next to each other.
Realizing that this wonderful plot twist in my life was orchestrated by God, who rules over time and space, before my son was even born, I felt a strong shiver. How could He write such a detailed and wonderful dramatic reversal?
In my twenties, young and naive, I believed I could do anything and chose this path. Whenever I faced moments of shock that I couldn’t handle alone, I always blamed myself for my inadequacy and weakness. It felt like someone finally understood my deep, heavy burden, as if they had seen every moment of my life, even my hidden emotions.
After hanging up the phone with my son, I cried for a long time.
'Everything I had been pretending not to feel and hiding melted away.
I was sure I hadn’t been wandering alone.
God knew everything.'
I cried until no more tears came out.
The following year, I had to go to the United States for an errand and finally met that professor. Tears started flowing even before I met him... I shouldn't cry, I thought. And I felt I should apologize for not being able to help with the pain their family suffered because of us.
Standing in front of his office, I took a moment to gather myself and my son opened the door.
"Hello, missionary."
"Oh my, you haven’t forgotten Korean. It’s so good to see you."
"How could something like this happen in the world? It’s amazing."
"Yes, I am also very surprised."
"Professor, I've been really looking forward to this time. There’s something I must tell you. Please forgive our team. Your family, who stood with us to help us enter that land, were God’s ambassadors and heroes of the mission work in Pakistan. Thank you, Professor."
"No, God did wonderful things. Our family just obeyed. Rather, we are grateful to you missionaries who came to such a dangerous and distant place to do the valuable work.
Thank you for your efforts."
The professor, my son, and I held back our tears and patted each other’s backs.
He was like a special fatherly figure to my son throughout his four years until graduation. The relationship between our parents, intertwined with service, continued even more beautifully as professor and student.
His family truly were hidden heroes.
They lived a life of faith, firmly believing that God had done everything.
Losing a beloved sibling to terror and sending each one early to heaven through such pain, they did not live a life of sadness.
Instead, acknowledging that pain, they lived even more diligently to fulfill the mission their parents dreamt of, eradicating poverty and disease, living an even more beautiful life than before.
Moreover, he met the baby who was in the womb of a missionary woman 20 years ago at this time, and as that child's professor, was living out what is the most wonderful and valuable life in the world, just like his father and brother.
Not everything died because they died!
The professor, with even greater strength, revived and carried on the dedication of his father’s and son's generations, and lived with an amazing inner strength added through the river of forgiveness.
The author of this reversal drama, God, must be shedding tears of joy and smiling.
