So, How Was China?

“So, how was China?” — everyone all the time.

This is the anthem cry of every acquaintance I run into on the streets.  It’s a sweet, small-talky sort of question that has a not-so-sweet, plunge-into-the-depths-of-my-soul sort of answer.  The best way I know how to answer this question is by turning back the pages of time (literally) and asking the Abby who was in the thick of it.

Below is an excerpt from my journal in April.  Homesickness was real, discouragement was my constant companion… yet God was at work: 

“There are days when I can’t stand the smells — there is a distinct odor in buses that is overwhelming.  There are days when I want to put a sock in every loud mouth of the street-sweepers. There are days when I feel overwhelmed and suffocated by a world I can’t understand. 

But in those days, there are moments of sincere sweetness and all is put to right.  I see a daughter taking gentle care of her elderly mother.  I see a dad playing peek-a-boo with his baby.  I see old men cutting up on the sidewalks.  I see the narrow, smiling eyes of our taxi driver through the rearview mirror as he laughs at our bad singing.  

I see, for just a moment, what He sees.  He sees precious human beings who are made in His image.  Human beings that He died for as much as He died for me.” 

It’s difficult to summarize a whole year of your life in a few minutes, isn’t it? But when people ask how China was, I think about this passage.  I think about the hardship, the discouragement, and homesickness.  I think about the countless carsick journeys, the constant state of confusion when my limited Chinese language failed me, and the ache of missing friends and family.

But then, the Holy Spirit comes in and reminds me of so much more.  He brings to my mind’s eye what He saw when I was mentally and emotional undone.  He saw a creation he was mad for.  He saw beauty in the disaster.  He saw a culture He understood and loved for all of it’s quirks and strangeness.  And He reminds me how often He gave me His eyes to see the same.

We see the world through our tainted, dirty, sin-stricken eyes.  But when we step into the kingdom of God, He doesn’t just change our hearts, He changes our vision.  He helps us to look at people through His perfect lens.

How can we love the unlovable without His vision?  How can we see what’s really going on inside a person unless we remove the pride, prejudices, and judgements that so often distort our sight? How can we know Him more unless we see what He sees?

So to answer your question, China was exactly what it has always been: a place full of precious ones who He asked me to see and love.  I failed too many times to count, but He never did.