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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

A story of two angels

There is more than meets the eye

Two angels came down to earth and were observing the world, disguised as travelers. Then they stopped to spend the night at the house of a rich family. Even though he had many rooms in his grand mansion, the haughty, unkind, rich man belittled the angels in rags and gave them a small storage-like room in the basement, without even giving them a warm blanket. When they lay down on the cold floor to sleep, the older angel spotted a hole in the wall. Then, with a great deal of effort, he carefully filled in the hole.

The younger angel found this strange and asked, “Is there any need to show such kindness to a person who treats us so poorly?” Then, the older angel said, “There is more than meets the eye,” and did not speak anymore.

The next day, the two angels headed off in the early morning. They looked around many places, and when night fell, they ended up sleeping at the house of a farmer who was very poor. The poor farmer and his wife showed the angels generous care and kindness so that they would feel at home and rest well. They shared their food, which was not even enough for themselves, and they gave up their comfortable beds.

The next morning, the good-hearted farmer and his wife were struck with tragedy. Their one and only cow, their most important means for making a living, collapsed and died in the field.

The younger angel became upset and argued with the older one, “How could you let this happen to them? You kindly helped the wicked rich man. Why did you just watch this farmer’s precious cow die when he is such a good-hearted man, who shares even the little food he has with some travelers? I think you are being far too unfair.”

Then the older angel said, “When we were sleeping in the basement of the rich man’s house, I saw that there were all kinds of treasures hidden in the wall. What I did was to quickly fill up the hole so that the rich man would not be able to take those treasures. Last night, when we were sleeping at the poor farmer’s house, an angel of death came to take the farmer’s wife away, so I worked to persuade him and negotiated with him all night long in order to make him take the cow in place of the farmer’s wife. There is more than meets the eye.”

We must take action after clearly asking and checking with Heaven

Our thoughts and Heaven’s thoughts can be different. There may be great differences between the things that Heaven deems to be right and the things that we deem to be right. Heaven’s plans and Heaven’s Will don’t always coincide with our plans and our will.

If we do not check Heaven’s thoughts and Will and judge only according to what is visible to our eyes, we may misunderstand Heaven, be disappointed by Heaven, and even feel unloved. Such misunderstandings, such disappointments, and such a sense of feeling unloved could even produce a dreadful situation in which we suddenly turn our steps from the path of Heaven to the path of Hell.

‘While going your way without checking, in an instant, you will end up on the path of death and the path of hardship and suffering.’ We must not take action carelessly after judging merely according to what our eyes see and according to our shallow thoughts and discernment. Instead, we must realize how important it is to clearly ask and check with Heaven, and then take action afterwards. We should live with this realization engraved in our hearts and hanging around our necks.

[The Lord] said that checking is like the ‘eyes,’ so we come to see and know the reality through checking. He said, therefore, that those who check take action as ‘divine beings.’ We must check through our bodies, through our hearts, through spiritual inspiration, through the Word, and through asking the Holy Trinity.

Also, even as we diligently carry out Heaven’s work, which has been checked, we should be mindful that we never lose our love with Heaven along the way. We must be cautious about being foolish and hence losing the ‘sense of working with Heaven,’ while being busy doing Heaven’s work. Anything that is not done together with Heaven is like only a shell: Heaven is not involved in such work, and it is only full of our own passion. No matter what it may be, we must do it after checking, and in the process of doing it, we must constantly check to see if we are working with Heaven. This is a truly precious command of God that we must urgently put into action.