By Zhang Min
On July 21, 2012, it rained heavily from the morning. I was supposed to have a meeting in a small group in the afternoon. I didn’t want to go, but we had the meeting only once a week. If I didn’t go, the work couldn’t be implemented. We should have fellowship in spite of adverse environments. When I thought of that, I hurried to attend the meeting. At past 4 p.m., a brother rushed in and said, “You are still having a meeting? Hurry home! The flood is great.” After I went out, I saw that the flood was very heavy and the water in the river was quite high. I had never experienced such heavy flood. I couldn’t go home at all (My home was half a mile away from this village), so I was exceedingly nervous. I had no choice but to return to the sister’s home, for her house, located on a higher ground, was rather safe. After a while, I heard very noisy talking outside. I went out and saw that the adults and children from my village were transferring to this side with the help of ropes and rods. I asked them eagerly about my house. Someone said it wasn’t damaged, but the water outside the courtyard wall was very high. I thought: All matters and all things are in God’s hand. Even if my house is washed away, there is God’s good purpose.
At daybreak the next day, the villagers and I went home together. When entering the village, we were shocked and could hardly believe our eyes. Among the eighteen families in our village, only my family and the other three lived in the lowest place, and my house was in the most dangerous location. If the water in the ditch flowed down, it would accumulate behind my house and damage it at any time. Never did I expect that the floodwaters flowing down would bypass my house. I was more amazed when I walked into the courtyard. The sand and muddy water flowing down from the courtyard above flowed into the house in front of mine through the ditch outside the yard wall, and my house was safe and sound. There was a dam built of stones behind my house. The stones were very small, but the dam wasn’t damaged by the flood. Among those houses which were considered both solid and safe, some houses’ courtyard walls were washed away, some were devoured by sand, and some were filled with water. Among the eighteen houses, only five weren’t hit by the flood, while the others all underwent a change. When I caught sight of the scene, I was very excited and didn’t know how to express my feelings. But in excitement, I started to hate myself: In the past I always grieved God’s heart and disobeyed and resisted God too much. I’m really unworthy of God’s such grace and keeping for me.
Only after experiencing a breathtaking flood did I deeply taste God’s words, “Without God’s care and keeping or God’s supply, no matter how hard man strives and struggles, he will not gain what he should gain.” “man plans and replans, but in the end he cannot escape from my hand. All matters and all things are in my hand.” The keeping and care God’s word promised to man and God’s controlling everything are no longer a saying. In the disaster, I have deeply understood and experienced that as long as we commit our future and destiny into God’s hand, do not prepare or plan for our ways of escape, and pursue the truth diligently to satisfy God, God will show us grace and keep us whatever circumstance comes upon us. And there will be no difficulty that we cannot get through, because God is righteous to everyone.
