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: Three Cents Column by Director Bong

Three Cents Column by Director Bong of RGO 24! 'Although I am lacking and my writing is only worth as much as 'three cents...' I share the Sunday messages and interpret them with 'the language of the world.''

칼럼_연재칼럼_Three Cents Column

Measure my value.

Measure my value.

In a remote village in Africa, they still have ‘purchasing marriage’ customs. When a man proposes marriage to a woman, he leads a cow(s) to the bride’s house and asks the father, “Please accept this cow and give your daughter to me.”

A man offers three cows for the best bride, two cows for a decent bride, and one cow for a common bride in order for the consent of marriage to be obtained.

There was a young man who studied the advanced livestock industry technology from abroad and returned home. One day, this young man led nine cows to propose for marriage.

When people heard him carrying nine cows to propose for marriage, [all the townspeople] murmured with excitement and came out to the street to see who the bride was. The young man passed the village chief’s house and the wealthiest farmer’s house but stopped at a shabby poor old man’s house and proposed to his daughter. She was obviously a woman who was ‘insignificant and a nobody’, so ‘one cow’ was enough to get approval for the marriage.

After decades passed, the young man became a successful businessman. Then, someone who visited the businessman asked after his wife and quietly asked about the mystery of the nine cows.

At that time, an elegant woman who spoke fluent English with a gentle smile brought tea. So the guest thought, “Finally he found the right woman for himself and remarried.” While the guest was drinking the tea, the businessman answered his question.

“She is the one who I proposed to with nine cows. Since I was very young, I loved her and dreamt of marrying her. In my village, the number of cows she would receive when she gets married was the most important issue. At that time, I could have gotten the marriage approval with one cow. I didn’t want the woman whom I loved the most, however, to limit her own value only as much as the worth of one cow for the rest of her life. Her value was decided on the number of cows she received when she was married. Therefore, I pondered and thought about offering her nine cows. However, after we got married, I never requested for my wife to study or to take care of her looks. I loved her as she was and also only told her that I loved her. When she started thinking about herself, “Am I not worth as much as nine cows?”, she started changing herself to be as worthy enough as nine cows. My wife trained and polished herself, became knowledgeable, became healthy, and became beautiful."

Let’s make ourselves lives that are like gemstones.

This story that the businessman told the guest is very similar to the Word of Providence history that the Holy Son uses to make us, who are pathetic, into his brides, only with love. It is a story that reminds us about the love of the Holy Trinity who valued us to be worth a quadrillion dollars, when we would not even be worth as much as one cow.

The Holy Son said that even if we would be worth less than one cow, if He leaves us alone, we would end our lives as worthless lives. When an original diamond stone is carved with 58 facets, it will be a shining diamond. Likewise, [if we make our lives,] we can be shining gemstones that are worth a quadrillion dollars and that would do various missions of Heaven’s history. Indeed, we, ourselves, should make more effort to properly fit as the Holy Son’s brides.