October 14, 2011
Dear Ones,
I’m
learning Chinese. Don’t shake your heads
and smile as though you think to yourself, “Well of course you are, you live in
China.” It really is a choice, I can
study and do it well or I can “just get by.”
There are days when no matter how hard I try it is simply a survival
thing and I am for positive that even the simplest things are not quite as
clear as they could be or even should be.
I have been here over 2 years and they say with lots of study it usually
takes about 7-8 years to feel proficient, then I meet those who have been here
longer than that and say it takes even more and of course there are those who
are here for a year and well let’s just say that they suddenly make me wonder
if I should rethink my view point on the gift of tongues. However no matter how hard I wish it away
there is no getting away from the need to communicate, and so here I am learning
Chinese. Can you tell I spend a lot of
time contemplating Chinese, there are days when I would prefer to not go out
and about because you have to talk and well let’s just say that it is with
great effort that I work out my conversations to use the simplest words in
order to get my point across because no matter what I am positive that when I
try those long words that my tones get all confused and I am asking about your
mother’s horse and not whether this meat is horse or something like that.
I was considering this whole language thing today as I held a little one
pondering her tiny broken and frail body, whispering softly to her and
singing. Suddenly the words of an old
Sandi Patty song where right there in the forefront of my mind,
“Love in any language
Straight from the heart
Pulls us all together
Never apart
And once we learn to speak it
All the world will hear
Love in any language
Fluently spoken here.”
I quietly began singing it to her smiling to
myself as she relaxed and settled into sleep, thinking how grateful I was that
this baby in my lap didn’t care what language I was singing to her in, she
simply recognized and was relieved by the love that she felt. It is a language that I see all around me
every day. It is the language of love
that is poured out on me in so many ways by each of you. It is lavishly displayed to me through a
merciful Heavenly Father. It is seen in
the actions of the women who care for these little ones. I see it in the lives of those around me who
have poured their hearts into making every moment they can just a little better
for the children we serve. It is a
language that crosses all borders and boundaries and firmly plants itself in
the hardest places, because it is the very love of The Father for the lost that
speaks loudest in the darkest night and calls each of us to rest our weary,
broken, and frail bodies on His lap in order to be comforted and to be loved
even in the pain of suffering. What an
incredible lesson language and a little one can bring.
With
love to each of you…In any Language,
Mariah
