A Missing Idol

by Rachel Chapman

 

As we were getting ready to leave Las Moras this last time, I took time to talk with my Nahuatl friends directly about the Scripture portions that we had been translating.  One of the last times with Queen, I asked her what she was believing.  She said, “I believe what we’ve been translating.  I believe that it is all true and that is what happened.”

 

And then I asked her, “But, what do you think about the Yahweh God from the Bible?”  We had recently done a lot of translation where the truth of Yahweh God directly clashed with the traditional Nahuatl idea of God and their saint-idols.  She said, “I believe that Yahweh God is true.  I believe that he is most powerful, more powerful than any of our saint-idols.  And I think he is good.”  That understanding made me want to do a happy dance.  But then she continued, “But, I don’t think my parents believe in Yahweh God though, because they have the saint-idol in their house to take care of them.”

And then it dawned on me that there was something she didn’t say that was significant!  Her parents have a saint in their house, BUT SHE DOES NOT!!!  I realized that she and her husband had not put up an image of a saint on a shelf to protect them in their new house because Queen knew that Yahweh God is more powerful!

God’s Word is coming to the Nahuatl!  And they are believing it!  There seems to be good understanding among those that work on the translation and they are hungry to hear more!!

The next time I go into Las Moras, I will get to work on Jesus’ life with Queen and others who help check the translation, working through Jesus’ miraculous birth and some of his ministry.  They will get to hear about the Savior that God had promised in the Old Testament!