In Philippians 1:7 is the phrase, “I have you in my heart”. At this point Paul is in prison and he is thinking about those who served with him in Philippi and are partakers of grace with him.
The last few days I have been traveling around Wuhan meeting people, gathering information and taking pictures for my blog, and simply broadening my experience with this great city. I have talked with Jane, the owner of Gianos, at length about her business and personal life, with Tom about business life and Christianity, with students at the coffee shop, and with Chinese in other settings.
On one of my bus trips to Hankou, a young lady had a baby boy, baby bag, and stroller with her. She sat and I stood by her. Her baby began to make sounds to me and so I played along and got him to smile and then laugh. This pleased her and entertained those around us. She and I happened to get off at the same stop in Hankou, and I could clearly see that she needed help. Since I had established a social contact with her through her son, I motioned that I would pick up the stroller and take it off the bus for her. As I placed it on the sidewalk she said, “Thank you.”
On another trip, when Zuhua and I were returning on the ferry from Hankou, we had positioned ourselves at the railing where we could enjoy a breeze and the night views of the city. Behind us were two shorter Chinese girls with their cameras who really wanted to be at the railing so they could take some pictures. I stepped back some and gestured that they take my spot as I was tall enough to easily see over them. I could tell by their smiles and gestures that they were really pleased by this.
God was using these experiences to help me understand what Paul meant by the expression, “I have you in my heart”. It was with these two young ladies that something clicked inside me. I felt such an intense warmth in my heart for them and desire that they be partakers of grace with me. I felt compelled to pray for their salvation as we traveled across the river.
As Chinese students – In Wuhan there are over a million college students. – walked to and fro as I took their picture in Hankou
and as I pushed my way through the crowd on the Breakfast Street
I began to understand that I have these people in my heart. Most are spiritually dead and walk in darkness without hope. They enter life, work hard and suffer for a time and then pass into an eternity of darkness and suffering because of their sin. The law of God is clear that the wages of sin is death, but God made provision for us by the death of his Son, Jesus Christ. He died on the cross as a perfect sacrifice in our place and then rose from the dead to overcome death for us. As we accept his death as payment for our debt, God places his seed within us (2 Peter 1:23) and we become a new eternal creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). I long for these young people to know Jesus Christ. My job then is to walk among them as a servant of light and pray and serve where I can. It takes time, work, and prayer to prepare soil for a good harvest and in the next thirty years that harvest is expected to reach 400 million here in China, which is 100 million more than the population of the United States. Try to get your mind around that and its implications.
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