Resting Well in the Lord's Bosom・Which Is Actually Good
I came to know Big Brother Wu when I was in the second year of junior high. Big Brother Wu was a reserve officer, so he came to the Fengshan Officers' Academy for training. My father was a chief instructor at the military academy and had a great burden to care for the brothers serving in Fengshan; so for a long stretch of time, every Lord's Day when he was off duty, Big Brother Wu would come to our home to rest and have a meal.
When my father learned that Big Brother Wu had graduated from the physics department of Taiwan Normal University, he said happily, "Our Guoping is doing terribly in physics—why don't you teach her while you're at it!" From then on, Big Brother became an "honored guest" of our home; my father even gave up his bed for him to sleep in and went to sleep on the tatami himself! One thing left a deep impression on me: on the very first day he had agreed to teach, I suppose he had been worked too hard in the army, for he lay down for a noon nap and slept for a very long time. By three-thirty in the afternoon, when my father saw that he still had not woken up, he said to us little girls, "Speak louder and see if you can wake him up." As a result, there was not the slightest stir. Seeing that he was still asleep, my father told us to pull open the screen door and let it slam shut, making a "bang, bang" sound, to see if it could wake him up. In the old houses of those days, the screen doors at home were all wooden-framed doors pulled shut by a spring, and the slightest carelessness in closing them would make a very loud noise. My father was a military man with a strict disposition, and he often rebuked us over this: "Can't you ease the door shut with your hand! So noisy! Keep it down!" But that one time, in order to "call" Big Brother Wu awake, my father specially had us use as much force as possible: "Put some strength into it! Pull the door wide open!" We all thought it great fun.
As it turned out, Big Brother still did not wake. By five-thirty in the afternoon, when it was nearly suppertime, my father had to go and call him himself, "Wu Youcheng! Get up!" After supper, the lesson still had to be taught, so Big Brother Wu came to teach me. He had taught only a little while when he said to my father, "Guoping is too slow; she can't understand anything I say." Still, from that time on, every Lord's Day afternoon he would wake up on his own and teach me physics and chemistry. This is the Big Brother Wu of my memory.
From my youth until now, it was mostly at the blendings or conferences throughout Taiwan that I had the chance to meet him. Even though I am now already in my fifties or sixties, every time he saw me from afar, he would walk over and rub my head—this was his way of cherishing and shepherding me. When my son married, Big Brother came down south from Taipei specially to attend the wedding meeting. The first thing he said when he saw me was, "Hey-hey! Look at that—even Guoping's son is getting married now." In his eyes, I seemed always to be that little sister of more than fifty years ago who was no good at physics. He often introduced me to others this way: "She's my student; I taught her physics."
In the church, Big Brother Wu was greatly respected by everyone, and he was also approachable. One year, he had an operation for a kidney transplant and was recuperating in the hospital. Guorui (Brother Fuhua's sister) and I—one in Kaohsiung and one in Hsinchu—were just wanting to try out a multi-party call over internet telephone, so we said, "Let's call Big Brother and see what he's doing!" Big Brother answered, and Guorui said, "Hey! Big Brother!" The moment he heard, he said, "Oh, Guorui?" A few seconds later I said, "Hey! Big Brother!" The moment he heard, he said, "Oh, Guoping? What are the two of you up to?" Actually his physical condition at the time was not good and he needed rest, but we were not afraid of disturbing him, because he really was so easy to draw near to—our Big Brother.
Once he had business in Kaohsiung, and it was pouring rain that day. As he passed by the hall in Fengshan, he saw my brother and asked, "Where's Guoping?" The brother answered, "She's at home, she didn't come over." Big Brother said, "I came just to see her!" The brother then phoned me and said, "Get changed; Big Brother wants to see you. I'll come back and pick you up." Although I was not like the brothers, who had more occasions to meet him at various meetings or fellowships, he still remembered this little sister in the Lord.
At the end of 2018, when I learned that he had suffered a heart attack on the plane flying to Los Angeles to attend the winter training, my heart was very anxious, and I kept praying for him. In my heart I said, "You must get well, come back to Taiwan, so that I can see you again, hug you. You can't just go to the Lord like this!" Thank the Lord, the Lord saved him. In early 2019 he safely returned to Taiwan, and I phoned him. When I heard his voice, I was overjoyed. In April of that same year, Big Brother's youngest son, Jurong, married. At the wedding banquet, when he came to our table, he said to me, "All right! Let's have a hug." I was truly happy; at last I got to hug Big Brother.
Early one morning, my son told me… I leaped up from the bed; it was so sudden that for a moment I could not accept it. Later, thinking it over, Big Brother often said he frequently could not sleep well; now that he has gone to the Lord's bosom, he can have a good, long sleep—which is actually good.