A divine encounter at a little chinese take-out restaurant, of all places!

On Friday night, Keith had to work late and the girls and I went into town to pick up some chinese take-out. It was a little late for us to be eating. The restaurant was pretty empty except for a little old man with white hair sitting at a table. The girls and I went in to pick up our food and I decided to add some wonton soup to our order. As I waited, I asked the worker behind the counter if he had heard from Yuki. 


Yuki was a teenager when I met her. She came over from China without her parents to earn some money to send home. She lived with a bunch of relatives in a tiny town home. We became friends one day when Ellie and I went in there for lunch. (This was before we brought Emma home). Anyway, she noticed Ellie was Chinese and came up and asked me why I decided to adopt from China. She sat down at the table and I told her my story. She asked me if I was a christian and if I could tell her more about Jesus and the bible. We met at McDonald's a few times, and then she invited me to her home. When I walked into her little town house I noticed there was no furniture. There were only boxes to sit on. I said, "Oh, did you just move in?" She said, "No, we've lived here a while." She showed me around. Several relatives all lived there together. They slept on mattresses on the floor. As we got to know each other, she offered to help me and Ellie learn chinese and asked if we would help her with her english. I had been listening to some cd's a friend loaned me and tried to impress her with the Chinese phrases I had learned. She laughed so hard. 


Later that summer,  she came over and I gave her swim lessons. After we swam, she cooked us some chinese dumplings. Then we looked at the photo album of us in China getting Ellie.  She seemed really sad. I said, "Are you okay Yuki?" She said that she was homesick and asked if she could lie down for a little while.  That night, when I took her home, she said she was going to get married. I said, "Wow, you're so young!" I asked her where she met the guy. She said she met him through a matchmaker. She told me that my daughter, even though Chinese, would grow up American and marry an American. She said she wanted to marry a Chinese man because she was more comfortable with her culture. She said in a small town it was hard to meet Chinese men, so she went to a matchmaker. She had only met the man she was going to marry twice. He lived in Minnesota. I asked her if she loved him. She said that American's marry for love and that it doesn't seem to last. She said, she told the matchmaker traits she was looking for in a guy and the matchmaker matched her with someone who was looking for a girl with the traits she had to offer. It all seemed so matter of fact.  Sometimes Yuki seemed so young and other times she seemed like an old soul.


Anyway, when I asked the young man behind the counter about Yuki, he had trouble answering me because of the language barrier. However, the little white haired man said, "Did you say Yuki?" I said, "Yes!" He said, "I'm her guardian." He told me that he and his wife had taken the whole clan into their home. He was the owner of the town home they lived in and they became friends. He used to be a green barrette in the service when he was a young man and traveled quite a bit. He said he could speak their language. He and his wife have a tri-level home with a kitchen on each floor and live on several acres of land. He showed me pictures on his iphone of his home and his land. He said that he loves to garden. He showed me pictures of all his flowers and prize winning vegetables. He showed me a stacked stone wall he built by hand. Then he showed me pictures of his wife who is now in hospice. He was so kind and gentle, he just made me want to open up to him. I told him that I was going through some difficult things right now too. He put his hand on my arm and looked me in the eye and said, "I talk to God all the time, but there are 2 short little prayers that I constantly ask Him.  I ask God to help me love people as He loves them, and I ask God to let me see myself as He sees me." Then he gave me a sweet hug. (Gulp)


That night, I had a heavy heart as I drove to pick up chinese take-out.  I never expected such a divine encounter. I don't think God was surprised by it however.  One time I read, "Life is a series of divine appointments, not accidents. Each interaction we have is a divine appointment set in advance by God. How are you going to conduct these divine meetings today?"

On the cross, Jesus saved us by taking into His own body that which would have caused us to perish.

If you've never seen The Green Mile, it's a movie worth renting. In the movie, John Coffy has a gift... he can take people's illness out of them and draw it into himself, healing them and making them whole, radiant, and beautiful. In this 2 minute clip, John takes this woman's cancer into his own body. She was helpless to do anything herself and needed only to be still and trust him in his work. This is a beautiful picture of what Christ did for us on the cross.

Just highlight the link below, then right click it and choose "go to address".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLbS8f9IplI&feature=player_embedded