MY CHINA TRIP
Recently,
my family and I went on
a trip to China. We visited such places as
the Great Wall of China,
the imperial palaces
and underground tombs of
Peking, the great Lake
and we also passed the
Grand Canal on
our bus journey to Nangking.
These are all massive
man-made structures
built long ago before the use of modern
technology and science.
Such famous wonders of
the world reflect
the supreme power of the emperors of China
in days of yore over their subjects.
However,
if we are impressed by such
gigantic man-made structures , we should
marvel even more at God's creations .
Can
anything be compared to the beautiful
sunrises and sunsets, the changing seasons,
the forests and wild animals and
the
rushing of waves to the shores?
Don't we
all enjoy an occasional moonlit
stroll through streets illuminated by
the flickering shadows of trees along
the
paths ?
What about the immensity of universe,
the fruits and the flowers mother nature
bring forth for men's
consumption
and appreciation ?
On the contrary, hardly a day
passes without news of the occurrence
of
natural disasters such as earth-quake ,
earth tremor, floods, landslides
filling us with fear for our beloved
planet,
God's gift to mankind.
To add to our distress, there's war here
and there, social unrest and conflict
in almost
any corner of the world.
Isn't God with us any more?
Or, is it another Noah and the Ark story?
This makes
me realize that advance
though the modern technology men
cannot prevent the occurrence of
natural disasters.
Men
may have reached the moon or landed
in Mars, still we are helpless creatures
very dependant on God's mercy and compassion
.
We are but a speck of dust in the entire
universe and therefore must bow down
to the mighty work of God's
creation.
That is why there is religion to
bring us closer to God.
If our ancestors , through ignorance,
worshipped the stone, the
moon,
the lightning and thunder,
now that we
know about the existence
of our creator,
shouldn't we make
haste to show
our appreciation
and love for Him ?
Indeed we should limit no conditions
our love for Him that created us.
I think
we should pray that one day,
when our life here on earth is over,
we will have no fear about hell fire
or natural
disasters
but be blissfully united to God in heaven.
Agatha Lai 2000
Published in Catholic Sabah
