(Fiction) "Something New Was Beginning!" by Regan Kim

Christmas this year was harsh. I lost my job in August due to the second Covid-19 lockdown. 

On Christmas Day, I had nowhere to go, so I was wandering the city centre alone. Late at night, I took a bus to go back home.

Had It been about half an hour? I was desperate for a smoke. There seemed to be no other passengers. 

I sneaked an e-cigarette out of my pants pocket and started vaping. The vapour was floating in the air, forming a cloud.

Then a woman's scream echoed on the bus. "Oh, no! He's smoking! I'm pregnant!" The bus driver freaked out and stopped the bus at the next stop. 

The woman was sitting in the far back seat. The driver asked me, "Did you smoke?" I didn't answer. He told me to apologize to her.

'What? Apologize? Who apologized to me when I lost my job?' I yelled silently. Despite myself, I burst into tears.

I couldn't stay on the bus anymore. I hopped off and walked a while. Loneliness in the dark turned my heart back to smoking. 

I took the vape out of my pocket, but it slipped from my hand and rolled into the road.

The moment I jumped off the sidewalk to pick it up, I found a car rushing towards me. It was too late to avoid a collision with the vehicle. 

Then I saw a weird thing. The shadow of a cross in the middle of the car's headlight turned up! Simultaneously, the vehicle hit me head-on. Bang!

The big noise caused my eyes to open. Am I dead? But I found the bus driver standing before me. Seeing my confusion, the driver explained what had happened. 

I was still asleep when we arrived at the last stop. When the driver failed to wake me up by shouting, he clapped his hands loudly and, finally, I woke up.

As I got up, I noticed a cross necklace hanging from the driver's neck. I asked him, "Are you Christian?" He smiled and answered, "Yes. Merry Christmas!"

As soon as I got off the bus, I took the vaporizer out of my pocket and threw it into the rubbish bin. I was humming as I made my way home on foot. 

I was still unemployed, and things didn't change at all. Nevertheless, I felt something new was beginning.

I was born again!

(Book Review) "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck

"The Good Earth" was written by American female novelist Pearl S. Buck, who spent most of her time in China since childhood, in Nanjing, China, and was published in 1931.

Here's a brief plot.

Wang Lung was married to O-Lan, a maidservant of the wealthy Hwang family. She not only took good care of her father-in-law but also did well in housekeeping.

Oran was a strong woman, such as giving birth to her son alone and working on household or farming from the day after childbirth.

Wang Lung and O-Lan thought that owning land was the only way to escape poverty. A series of good harvests made them earn money, and they began to buy land.

Due to severe famine in the village, Wang Lung moved to the south with his whole family. Riots occurred here and there, causing rich people to hide their property in their homes and evacuate.

Because O-Lan, who used to be a maid of a wealthy family, was well aware of the rich's habits, Wang Lung and O-Lan found hidden gold coins and jewels and intercepted them.

After returning hometown, Wang Lung bought all the land from opium-addicted Hwang, desperate to purchase opium. Wang Lung became a large landowner. He brought Lotus to his house as his concubine, treating O-Lan harshly.

O-Lan died lonely, and over the years, the two sons came to Wang Lung, who had become an older man, and asked him to sell the land. Wang Lung firmly refused their suggestion, saying selling the ground means the end of everything.

The eldest son and the second son promised they would not sell the land, but they were smiling, facing each other behind Wang Lung.

<Lessons>

Wang Lung and O-Lan made their fortune with land, but their life didn't result in a happy ending. The wealth set apart the two and also ruined the relationship between Wang Lung and the sons. They were a broken family.

It was indeed a vain ending, like the words of Ecclesiastes 1:2, "Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."

Seeing this, Christians who read Pearl Buck's "The Good Earth" hope for a land of life and peace, not a land of money.

We can find the precious land in Matthew 13:44. It is the gospel of heaven. I want to hold this word as the lesson of the novel.

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field."

(Question) What is the land of Wang Lung to me? What is hidden in my field that I want to buy with everything I have?