——————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Last week was a busy and intense week for me at my work. Some unexpected requests kept coming up to my team and me. On Friday, I decided to give myself a break – took a day off. I spent time in doing some over-due items from my “honey-do-list” and enjoyed spare time with my wife – we went to a local riverfront park and spent some time in hunting for striped bass. It is a time well spent even we didn’t get what we were searching for from the river. On our way back, we saw a couple sat there enjoying sunshine and their picnic sandwiches. Seeing their smiling faces, I told my wife that it is a beautiful picture and I hope we can be like them a few more years down the road 🙂

This experience lets me think of an interesting illustration from a recent radio broadcast program called “Bridge the gap”. I will try to memorize as much as I can. It goes something like this,

“A young couple just married. In the morning after their wedding day, the young wife got up very early to prepare their very first meal. When the husband woke up and saw the breakfast was ready, he was delightedly surprised. At this moment, the young wife started to say, “I was afraid that the meal wouldn’t be ready, so, I got up early to prepare it. However, I was also afraid that you would be disturbed, so, I was carefully minimizing noises on my preparation. After I prepared the meal, I was afraid that the meal would be cold when you are up, so, I kept it in the oven all the time before I dished out.”

It is a lovely picture of marriage life. Throughout the Bible, we learned that God established marriage for humans. He prescribes an intimate and holy relationship between husband and wife as Adam said, “Eve is his bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh.”  Apostle Paul even used the relationship between husband and wife to imitate Christ and His church. He said, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”

你們作丈夫的、要愛你們的妻子、正如基督愛教會、為教會捨己．(Ephesians 5:25)

The illustration has a deeper meaning too, according to the radio broadcast. It can be used to illustrate the meaning of “God fearing”. Sometimes we may have a difficulty in grasping the true meaning of fearing God. The illustration of the young wife gives us a picture of revering God is out of loving Him. Did you notice that the young wife said, “I was afraid” three times? This is not because she is afraid of her husband. It is out of respect and her heart of love – a correct way of fearing God.

My dear brothers and sisters, the Bible teaches us to love our Lord wholeheartedly. As we are His beloved children, do we revere Him out of our love?