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All of us headed down to breakfast this morning and were shown to a table. As we began to sit down the hostess said we could move to a bigger table in the next section since we have so many people with us. The other diners were a mix of business men and women and touristy types. We, however, were the only ones with children.
As I lifted Jack up to move to the new table, I backed into the path of a young man, likely in his twenties, who was working as what I assumed was a bus person. He was carrying a larger tray of plates and had to sidestep a little to avoid running into me. He seemed fairly agile as no plates hit the ground. As I realized that I had step into his path, I responded reflexively with, "oh, I'm sorry!"
After being seated at the larger table, I was stunned as the young man approached me. Below are his words as best as I recall, all spoken with a smile.
"I am the minority(pointing to himself). You are the majority(pointing to me). You are taking care of the juniors. You do not say sorry to me."
Although his English was good, I had to think to determine exactly what he meant. His point, I believe, was one of showing honor to me and our little traveling group. His use of minority and majority did not concern numbers as in US, but rather position. In a country in which honor is something taken very seriously, this young man humbled himself and honored us for adopting these "juniors."
In a moment, he was gone. I wanted to explain to him that we do not deserve any such honor, that we serve a God Who does. I wanted to tell him, for all the adoptive families out there, that we are the ones who are honored by the children that come into our homes.
Sent with AGAPE LOVE from my iPad!
Hello, I very seldom have time to go to everyone's blog and read posts, but this morning something drew me to yours. I cannot express how your writing made my day today. When we were in China on missions, our group was treated with respect and courtesy. In one instance we were sat for dinner (13 of us) in a very large room with only one other large table. After a bit another large group was brought in, not wearing shirts and smoking a lot. A couple in our group were allergic to the smoke and when the guide asked them if they would mind not smoking, they graciously put out their cigarettes. On the way out one man noticed my husband's wolf tattoo and pointed to his own of a wolf, stood up touched his tattoo and my husband's tattoo, shook his hand with a huge smile and said something we didn't understand, but was very touching. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteP Bill, this brought tears to my eyes... He was right, you are an honorable man and an honorable family. Safe travels, our prayers are with you.
ReplyDelete-Chrissy
This made me CRY!!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing! WE love China!! :) (but not nearly so brave as you to try all the street foods!)
ReplyDelete