My mother was a Christian
Text/Zhang Fuxian Photo/From the Internet
The mother is gone, gone forever, she went to heaven, to follow the God she believed in, leaving me weak and sick, I was sad. Niang has been gone for 11 spring and autumn, but I still think about her persistently, as if she is still living in this noisy world, and the figure of Niang appears in front of my eyes again and again...
Dad died, and overnight, her hair was much grayer, and the wrinkles on her face were deeper than before. The doctor checked her, her blood sugar was high, she had diabetes, and she had the old problem of asthma, her back was hunched, her waist was bent, and she walked, always leaning over. During that time, there was a church in the village, and every weekend, many women went to the church to meet, and the mother also went, and she became a Christian.
At that time, although I was only a middle school student, I was already an atheist, and I was a little confused about my mother's joining the church. Although the teacher also told us that citizens have freedom of religious belief, I still sneered at my mother for a while.
"Mother, is there really a God in the world?"
"Well, there really is."
"When I was a child, didn't you often tell me that there were no ghosts and gods in the world?" So how can there be a God? ”
The mother smiled and did not squeak. She buried her head and continued her work of choosing dishes, but I was not willing.
"Will the foreign gods bless the Chinese people?" Mother, you should believe in Buddhism, or Taoism. ”
The mother did not speak, picked up the basket, leaned over, and went into the kitchen, and I smiled secretly behind her.
It was Saturday, the brothers and sisters were all back from work, and my mother had just returned from church, and I deliberately asked him: "Mother, is God omnipotent?" ”
"Yes, of course it is omnipotent, otherwise, how could the mother believe in him?" The mother was very strange, and did not expect me to tease her again.
"Can he build a stone that he can't move?" I seemed to be smiling, and even asked my mother without smiling.
My mother was silent, and she was pondering what I said.
"Little bunny cub, come and tease me again." Su Zhen, the mother woke up, she stretched out her arm, making a gesture to hit me, I laughed and hid behind my brother.
Mother is smart! You know, she was the first student in the literacy class of the whole commune.
"Old third, let the mother believe in Christ." Daddy is gone, the mother is bored at home alone, and the women in the village get together, the mood is happy, and it is also good for her body. The eldest brother saw the fame and persuaded me in a serious tone.
From then on, I stopped interfering with her going to church, and when I had time, I helped my mother copy the hymns they sang. The mother then told me some things about the church, such as the ermao niang in the west of the village scolding the street again today, the fourth daughter-in-law of Li in the north of the village who did not filial piety to the elderly mother-in-law, and how bad the heart and eyes of the third mother-in-law at the east end of the village were. At the end, she added with a smile: "They also 'learn well' in the church." People in the village call joining the Christian church "learning well."
"They're not really Christians." I laughed too.
A serious illness destroyed my body, my mother and brothers went around seeking medical treatment for me, and my mother went to church more frequently. One day, when she returned, she excitedly told me, "Third son, I have asked the people in the church, as long as you join the Christian church, God will bless you and your illness will get better." ”
The mother is really confused. She was smart, and she was even confused, but I knew that my mother was "sick and rushed to the doctor"!
"Mother, where is there any God?" Besides, I'm a people's teacher, how can I join a Christian church? ”
The mother's pale face darkened with excitement, and she sat there in a daze, worried, stunned for a moment. Then she went out the door, against the north wind, braving the flying snow, and went to the church.
My mother finally did not let me join the church, she was afraid of affecting my future. The people in the church thought of a compromise, let me go to church once, they prayed for me, and recorded my name on the church's roster, which worked.
I didn't want to blow my mother's kindness, and when the spring flowers bloomed, my mother led me into a church.
There were a lot of people in the church, but most of them were old, weak, sick and disabled, and all of them were women, and I was a "big old man" sandwiched between them, extremely conspicuous, and I remembered an idiom - standing out from the crowd, sandwiched in the crowd, I secretly enjoyed. My mother found me a seat in the courtyard and asked me to sit down and listen to them sing hymns.
"Suddenly I felt so weak, even though I had been told countless times that I was going to start all over again. Always when the sun rises in the east, determined to live again..."
The soft singing made me sleepy, and my heart actually had a sense of humor, I remembered the story of "Ye Gong Good Dragon", but I was not exactly like that "Ye Gong".
When the party was about to end, my mother led me into the house, and I was received by an amiable, ruddy-faced, white-haired, wrinkled old woman. My mother donated a dollar for me to the church, and the old woman made me kneel on the ground, and she put her hand on the top of my head and read the words in her mouth.
"Lord, we have come to you and prayed to you for my brother, that you might bless you with grace. My brother is gracious to you, and we pray to you today, grace to grace, blessing to blessing, strength to strength...
"Pray that the Lord will treat him with grace so that he may recover healthily, live a happy life, and have a happy family." amen!! She drew a cross on her chest.
On the way home, the mother's complexion was much redder, the wrinkles on her face were stretched out, her body was not as squat as before, and the steps under her feet were much lighter. I was surprised to find that my mother seemed to be younger.
After my mother's death, my brother asked me if I knew the reason why my mother joined the church? I shook my head. My brother told me that after my father died, my mother was almost discouraged, and she put her spirit in God,and I was her all hope. When I went to school, she prayed that I could go to college; after I graduated, she prayed that I could find a satisfactory daughter-in-law; after I got married, she prayed that my daughter-in-law would give birth to a noble son early and that my mother and child would be safe; when I was sick, she prayed that I would recover soon; when my grandson went to school, she prayed that he would be safe and healthy,...... My mother joined the Christian church because of me.
My mother never told me these things, and I knelt in front of my mother's grave, and my eyes were blurred with tears. Mother, may you be safe, happy and happy in heaven!
About author:Zhang Fuxian, formerly known as Zhang Huifeng, is a geography teacher at Chengwu Bole No.1 Middle School in Shandong Province. Use poetry to record the joys and sorrows of life, use words to describe the good, evil, beauty and ugliness of the world; good reading, love calligraphy, to praise the true feelings of the world, to say all the unfairness of the world. He is a contracted writer of Chinese original novels, who has written the novella "Auspicious and His Partners", as well as short stories, miniature novels, essays, and poems, totaling millions of words, and his works are scattered on various online platforms.
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