by Rev. Benjamin Chung
One morning, I was in front of my house and the garbage truck was just pulling up to pick up my garbage. I thought I’d say “hi” and thank the essential worker for his work. What I also did to break the ice was ask how things were and what was strangest thing he ever found in the garbage. His first response was that work can sometimes be difficult as there’s more garbage and sometimes people can be impatient when they are stuck behind him on a narrow road.
His second answer was more shocking. He shared that it wasn’t him, but other coworkers who happened to grab a garbage bin when working in the financial district, only to have a person jump out and surprise him. My first thought was that this was someone playing a prank on the garbageman, as I’ve seen videos of this happening. But those videos were often filmed in a suburban neighborhood, while this event was happening in downtown SF. What happened was, homeless people were sleeping in the trash bins in the winter when it got cold, because at least they had a solid but temporary four walls and a roof over their head. Other times, homeless people who were sleeping in the larger metal garbage bins were thrown into the trash compactor and almost crushed alive! Thankfully, their banging on the side of the garbage truck loud enough to get the attention of the garbage man and have him stop the compactor.
Every life is precious. Every life is essential and necessary, for every life is made by God and part of His wonderful design. We see this Jesus’s ministry, when He interacted with Jews and Gentiles, teaching and healing all who came to Him. From the Roman centurion, to the Samaritan woman, to the Syrophoenician woman, to even the Samaritan leper. Each person was valuable in Jesus’s eyes. Even yours! Remember that Jesus loves you too! Speaking of the Samaritan leper, Jesus didn’t just heal him, but a total of ten lepers! The others were likely Jews, while this man was a Samaritan. And yet, only he returned to thank Jesus for healing him of his leprosy (Luke 17:11-19).
Even during this pandemic, surrender your life to Him. Jesus will take care of your insecurities, infirmities and even the deadly coronavirus. Don’t think of surrendering as just the day you came to faith, but think of surrender as a continual reliance on God. As you do so, you will also come to acknowledge the essential work of our LORD Jesus Christ—and your only response is going to be thankful praise!
Translation:
有天早上我在家門前碰到垃圾車剛停下來收集我家的垃圾。我覺得要去和司機打個招呼，順便感謝這位「必要性工作者」的辛勞。我嘗試打開話匣子，先問候一下，跟著和他討論在倒垃圾中發現過的最奇怪的事情是什麼。他的第一個反應是，工作有時會有困難因為多了很多垃圾，亦有時人們在窄路上碰到在他的垃圾車後面時會顯得非常地不耐煩。
他的第二個回答更令人震驚。他分享說有次他一個同事在金融區工作時預備倒一個垃圾桶，竟然有個人突然從桶裡跳出來嚇了他一跳。我最初想這可能是有人想對垃圾工人玩惡作劇，因為曾經我看過類似的視頻。然而這些開玩笑的視頻通常是在郊區附近拍攝的，但這件事卻是在舊金山金融區發生的。原來實情是，無家可歸者在冬天氣溫變冷的時候會躲在垃圾桶裡睡覺，因為至少他們有堅固但臨時的四堵牆和頂在他們頭上的屋頂。有時，那些睡在較大的金屬垃圾箱中的無家可歸者會錯誤地被扔進垃圾壓實機幾乎活活地被壓死！慶幸地他們在垃圾車旁敲打夠大聲，以致引起垃圾工人的注意，及時停止了壓實機。
每一個生命都是寶貴的。每個生命都是必不可少的和必要的，因為每條生命都是上帝創造的，也是祂奇妙設計的一個部分。我們從耶穌的事工中可以得見例証：耶穌與猶太人和外邦人的交往，耶穌教導和醫治所有來到祂跟前的人，無論是羅馬百夫長或是撒瑪利亞婦人，腓尼基族婦女，甚至撒瑪利亞痲瘋病人，每個人在耶穌眼中都是寶貴的。甚至是你的生命！記住耶穌也愛你！談到這個撒瑪利亞痲瘋病人，耶穌不僅醫治了他，還醫治了其他十名痲瘋病人！ 其他人可能是猶太人，而這個是撒馬利亞人。然而，只有他一個回來感謝耶穌治癒了他的痲瘋病（路加福音17：11-19）。
即使在疫情中，仍把生命交托給主吧。耶穌會看顧您，照料你的不安和你身體上的虛弱甚至處理那致命的冠狀病毒。不要單單只在您初信的那一天降服在主前，而是持續地降服於上帝裡不斷地依賴祂。當您這樣做的時候，您將瞭解到我們主耶穌基督的工作是何等重要，而您的唯一回應將會是不住的感恩和讚美！
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