By Fang Hui
As the saying goes, “Peach is more beneficial to man than apricot.” None of us are strangers to peaches. Not only are they juicy, but they are pleasing, and in the hot summer, if we eat a crisp and juicy peach, we will instantly feel much cooler. In the past, I only paid attention to the delicious peaches but neglected the ordinary and narrow leaves of peach trees, because in my eyes they were useless. But later, through a special experience, I acquired a different understanding of them.
It was one night in July 2018. I was woken by the intense itching. At first, I thought I got bitten by mosquitoes, and that I would be fine after scratching. But to my surprise, the more I scratched, the more I itched, to the extent that I really couldn’t stand it anymore. Then I turned on the light to have a look, and I was dumbfounded at the time. There on my arms, legs, and even on my face, belly, and back were areas of big and red spots. They made me itch unbearably all over, like ants crawling on my body, so that I scratched with greater energy. Shortly after, my skin was indented with the bloody marks of my nails. Seeing all this, I felt both worried and fearful. I thought to myself, “Could I have an illness?”
Early the next morning, I hurriedly went to a clinic. The doctor told me, “You are suffering from hives. Don’t eat seafood, uncooked or cold food recently. And you just need some antihistamines.” Then I returned home and took the medicine in a hurry. Soon, the spots disappeared and the itch was relieved, and this made me very happy. But good things never last. By evening, my body started to itch again and the swellings which had gone down appeared once more, and they were so itchy that I nearly wanted to break them off scratching myself. In the next few days, I took the medicine every day but it didn’t work at all. As soon as it was two or three o’clock in the morning, the spots would begin itching. Due to this disease, I couldn’t eat or sleep, and I also became irritable. Afterward, I went to a city hospital, and the doctors said there was no effective treatment for my disease, and that what I could do was pay attention to my daily diet, wait and let the disease just run its course. For several days in a row, my disease made me particularly tormented and upset.
Then, I called my mother and told her about my condition. She suggested that rubbing the spots with the tender leaves of peach trees added to some salt could help me get well. At that time, it was summer. I picked some leaves of peach trees and then rubbed wherever I itched as my mother told me. As a result, though my skin became a little green, the itchiness really stopped immediately. And after being washed, where I rubbed was not red anymore. Moreover, by evening the swelling was alleviated a lot. I continued to do like this for the next three days, and after that my body actually stopped itching completely. From then onward, this disease never recurred again. This was how the ordinary leaves of peach trees miraculously cured my hives which had plagued me for days. Looking at the narrow leaves, I couldn’t help but sigh with emotion, “Who allows them to have such marvelous functions?”
Afterward, I read in the word of God, “Among all things, whether it is animals, plants, or all kinds of grass, God also created some plants that are necessary to resolve harm or illness to the human body. What do you do, for instance, if you get burned? Can you wash it with water? Can you just find a piece of cloth somewhere and wrap it up? It might fill up with pus or get infected that way. What do you do, for instance, if you get scalded accidentally by a flame or by hot water? Can you flush it with water? For instance, if you get a fever, catch a cold, suffer an injury from physical work, a stomach ailment from eating the wrong thing, or develop certain diseases due to living habits or emotional issues, such as vascular diseases, psychological conditions or diseases of the internal organs—there are corresponding plants to cure all of these. There are plants that improve blood circulation to remove stagnation, relieve pain, stanch bleeding, provide anesthesia, help people recover normal skin, eliminate blood stasis in the body, and eliminate toxins from the body. In short, they can all be used in daily life. They are of use to people and have been prepared by God for the human body in case of need. Some of these were allowed by God to be inadvertently discovered by man, while others were discovered from certain special phenomena or by certain people prepared by God. Following their discovery, mankind would pass them down, and then many people would know about them. This way, God’s creation of these plants has value and meaning. In short, these things are all from God and were prepared and planted when He created a living environment for mankind. All of these things are very necessary.”
God’s words made me feel suddenly enlightened. I thought, “As it turns out, before creating us humans, for the sake of the needs of our bodies God prepared all kinds of plants, and bestowed various miraculous efficacy on them. So these ordinary and usual plants can resolve our various diseases. Some can improve blood circulation to remove stagnation, some can diminish inflammation and relieve pain, and still others can reduce internal heat. And so on. Just like the unremarkable peach trees, they not only can bear fruit that can be eaten by man, but their leaves can be used in medicine. Without the need of special care and cultivation, or the extraction through complex procedure, these leaves themselves have miraculous functions of clearing away heat, detoxifying people, destroying intestinal parasites and relieving itching, and they can treat a variety of diseases, such as malaria, carbuncle and furuncle, hemorrhoid, eczema, and so on, which shows their great medicinal value. I thought of when I suffered from hives. Medicine couldn’t resolve the itchiness and the pain, but instead it was the leaves of peach trees that cured my disease, and there were no side effects.
Thanks be to God. After this disease, I felt God’s meticulous love and concern for us. Though we humans have been corrupted by Satan, and always rebel against God and stray far from God, God, at all times, watches over and protects us, and supplies our needs in obscurity. These plants appear to be ordinary, but in each is hidden God’s love for us. We can’t leave the myriad things created by God, and even less the supply to our life provided by God. Each of us lives in the warmth of God’s love. Only God forever deserves to receive our praise and worship.