Page 8 - Good News November 2017 paper

was conscious as Dr. Chou to obey their orders absolutely.
Taohsiang operated on my
Ieye. I could hear the sound of
the operating instruments and
Dr. Chou speaking.
My right eye had been in a bad
condition for more than three
years. I was almost blind. About a
year later, I learned that only the
transplantation of a cornea could
get my sight back to normal.
When I told my wife she said
nothing, but showed me her
savings book. She was illiterate,
but from the book I knew with
surprise that she had managed to
save about 500 Taiwan dollars
after several years of hard work.
"If this is not enough, we'll try to
get more," she said. "You are not
like me. An illiterate person is
blind though he can see. A man
who can read needs both eyes."
I informed Dr. Chou that I was
ready to have a corneal ope-
ration.
A month later, he phoned me and
told me that there was a man who
had just died. Before he died, the
doctor said, the man had told his
family that he would allow any
part of his body to be trans-
planted to anyone who needed it.
The following day I entered the
hospital. I was extremely lucky.
People waited for years before a
cornea became available, and I
told my wife how thankful I was to
her for making the operation
possible.
After the operation, as I was
wheeled out of the operating
room, my daughter, Yung, put her
lips close to my ear and said,
"Everything went well. Mother
wanted to come, but she was
afraid."
"Tell her not to come," I said, "But
tell her I'm all right. She need not
worry."
* * *
I was 19 years old when I married
by my parents' orders. In those
days it was still customary that
marriages were arranged merely
by the parents; the children had
shed a tear. But she has a heart."
My father and my wife's father
were close friends and had "Do you want her to live like a
promised that if their wives gave widow although she has a hus-
birth to a boy and a girl, the band? Imagine what you would
children would be married. feel if you were she!"
I had never seen the girl who was Nothing changed the way I felt.
to be my wife until the very day She always kept her face down
she was brought to our house. and spoke softly. When I dis-
agreed with her, she would raise
She came with her face covered her head to show me that she was
by a veil. After bowing to heaven sorry and to try to give me a smile
and earth, we were led to the of obedience; then she would
bridal bedroom. When at last I quickly lower her head again. She walked past me and put the
lifted the red brocade of her bridal food on the table, her head still
veil, I received a great shock. Her In the thirty years of marriage that bent down. Standing against the
face was much uglier than I had followed, I seldom smiled at my wall with her back towards me,
imagined. My dream broke to wife and we never went out she began to weep. "It is enough
pieces. She looked like an old together. In fact, I sometimes to hear you say this," she said
woman of 40, although she was wished her dead. Yet my wife between sobs.
still 18 years of age. proved to have more patience and
love than anyone I knew. My Yung came into the room in tears.
I fled to my mother's room and income was hardly enough for our "Tell him, Mother!" she cried.
cried all night. My mother told me daily life. The baby was often ill. "Let Father know that you gave
that I must accept my fate. She When my wife was not looking the cornea for his eye!" She
praised my new wife as a kind- after the household, she worked shook her mother. "Tell him!"
hearted, hard-working girl. But with some rich family or helped "I only did what I should do," my
nothing she said reduced my drag fishing nets with some wife remarked. I grabbed her by
anger and disappointment. I did fishermen to earn a little extra the shoulders, and looked
not want to share a room with that money. closely at her face. Her left eye
ugly wife, and I did not speak to * * * was covered with a large patch!
her. I stayed at school. When the After the operation, my daughter, "Why… why did you do it?" I
summer vacation came, I refused Yung, brought me a transistor cried, shaking her hard.
to go home until my father sent an radio to occupy the long hours "Because you are my husband,"
uncle of mine to fetch me. while the bandage remained on she answered. I held her tight.
my right eye. But I had plenty of Then I got down and knelt at her
My wife was cooking supper when time to think, and my thoughts feet and begged her for for-
I arrived, and she raised her head kept returning to my wife. I didn't giveness for my appalling
in a smile when she saw me. I want the people in the hospital to attitude!
walked right past her. After know that I had an ugly wife. - Native Missionary
supper, my mother persuaded me "Let this same attitude and
to have a talk with her privately. Dr. Chou removed the bandage purpose and [humble] mind be in
from my eye. I was afraid to open you which was in Christ Jesus:
"Son, you are being cruel to her," it. The physician said that the [Let Him be your example in
she began. corneal operation was a success. humility:] Who, although being
"Her face is unattractive, that's "Mother is making your favourite essentially one with God and in
true, but she does not have an dishes to welcome you home," the form of God [possessing the
ugly heart." Yung said when she came to fetch fullness of the attributes which
"No, it must be beautiful," I said me. make God God], did not think this
angrily. "I wonder how you and "She is a good wife and a good equality with God was a thing to
father could have made me marry mother," I replied. These words I be eagerly grasped or retained,
her." would never say before. but stripped Himself [of all privi-
My mother's face grew pale. "She leges and rightful dignity], so as
is an extremely good girl, under- Yung and I climbed into a taxi. She to assume the guise of a servant
standing and patient," she con- was strangely silent all the way (slave), in that He became like
tinued. "She has been in this home. As I walked into the house, men and was born a human
house more than six months now, my wife was coming from the being. And after He had appeared
and she works from morning to kitchen with a plate of food. in human form, He abased and
night in the kitchen and on the "You're back," she said very humbled Himself [still further]
farm. She has not said a word of softly, without raising her head. and carried His obedience to the
complaint about the way you have "Thank you for letting me see," I extreme of death, even the death
treated her. I have not seen her said. of the cross!" (Philippians 2:5-8).