An Urgent Wake-up Call

By Ming Ning

(Clearwisdom.net) My father fought in a war when he was young. His only possession was a torn grass mat. Once when everyone was taking a break, my father, who was sound sleep, was woken up by a hushed voice. That voice was calling my father's name, "Get up... Gently..." The voice was kind and sincere. My father obeyed and went up toward the speaker, looking at him with a puzzled expression.

The person asked my father to look back down at the torn grass mat on which he had slept. A snake was coiled up under the mat. No one knew when the snake had crawled under there. My father was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat all over his body. This incident made me think, "If the person who alerted him had sounded afraid or had spoken abruptly, my father would have correspondingly responded with surprise, startling the snake. As a result, he would have been hurt."

About sixty years have passed, but the memory remains fresh in my father's mind. What he remembers is not only his fear at seeing the snake but also the kind and gentle voice full of human caring.

While we are busy striving and pursuing various things, are we, like my father, unaware of the dangerous situation we are in? When that kind voice echoes again, how are we going to respond?

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/6/30/105147.html

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