Passion Fruit Flower??
Our close friends who are in the early stages of discipling a young church in the Asia Pacific region, amongst the Kora people group, recently told me what’s become my favorite story from “the field.” In our culture, we have many words to describe the world around us and the intricate beauty God created in the natural world…but it’s not like that everywhere. Read my friend, Craig’s words to find out what happens when an adult see’s this beauty for the first time in his life, because of new life in Christ:
“So to start with a little background, the Kora people have been separated from God for a really long time. When we came in here 6 years ago, we realized that the Kora did not really see or appreciate the beauty that was all around them. We live in a beautiful mountainous area with waterfalls springing out of the mountains all around us and they just didn’t see it. In fact the Kora don’t have words in their language like gorgeous, pretty, beautiful, lovely, stunning or anything like that. When they see something they like, they just say it is good. They also don’t have names for a lot of the colors. They have names for blue, red, green, and such, but not much else. I still remember many times when we would go on a walk and would see flowers and pick them and take them home. The Kora people would ask if we were going to eat the flower, or sell it or something. When we told them no, they would say, “Well why in the world are you taking it home?” We would then say that we thought it was good. (Remember they don’t have a word to say it is pretty) They would laugh at us and make fun of us since they could not understand what we were talking about. How could it be good if you can’t eat it or sell it!
Well the other day, something happened that I don’t believe has ever happened before. I was studying with P and T when T had to go outside for a bit. He came back in and he was holding onto a flower of a passion fruit plant. He was looking at it with amazement and saying, “Guys, look at this. Look at how amazing this is! (They do have a word for that!) Look at it! I have never seen how amazing this is! Yahweh made this so good! Yahweh is amazing at his creating! Look, it’s petals are green on the outside, but white on the inside! Then from there it has these little finger like things that are kind of reddish! Then down in the middle it is white and that little ball in there has a sprout on it that bursts out into these other 5 petals that are yellow (Had to use the national language to say yellow!) Then on top of that there is another little green ball that has a little white propeller like an airplane on it! This is amazing! Yahweh created this! He is amazing!” Man guys, I know this may not sound like much to you, but my heart was just praising God as this man who had never seen or appreciated beauty before, was describing the intricate details about this flower the best he could. As he kept going on about how God was so amazing for creating this, I told him he should smell it. He smelled it and cursed (Some habits die hard!) and said, “Wow! It smells amazing! Paulus, smell this!” Then they both sat there smelling it, talking about how beautiful it was and praising God for it! I am pretty sure this is the first time that a conversation like this has ever taken place in Kora. Maybe not, but I have never seen anything like this until now. God has opened their eyes and they are seeing the wonders of his creation! Thanks for praying for these guys and rejoicing for them as well! Keep praying for them as God continues to open their eyes and reveal himself and his wonders to them!”
There you have it! I love this story so much because it shows us how thoroughly changed a heart can become when it’s in a right relationship with God and because it shows us how good God is to us, just through Creation, let alone the myriad other ways He demonstrates that love.