Heaven

On the way home from shopping, I was walking through a laneway and happened upon a young man who was burning "money" in a burn bin. So, I stopped.

You know, I wasn't in the best of moods, having just stormed off from two taxi drivers who I thought were trying to cheat me. So, when I saw him doing the burning, I looked him in the eye and asked,

"Do you speak English?"

He shook his head and looked at me with a question on his face. I said, (pointing to my head and twirling my index finger) "Do you know how DUMB that is?"

He got the message, but of course, he kept right on doing what he was doing... burning "afterlife money" or whatever you call it. The Chinese have some strange idea that if they burn fake money down here, their dead relatives (wherever they went) in the spirit realm will get rich!

Now, to me that's a silly superstition. But, on the other hand, if I stop and think about it: maybe, just maybe it shows that those Chinese that do this are exercising a little bit of faith. Faith in "something" even though, to me it's ridiculous and I wanted to get that message to this kid, like a wake-up call.

I wasn't trying to be rude or insult him. I was trying to make him stand back and take a look at what he was doing.

At least it shows he believes in an "after-life". It shows that humans have an innate desire to believe in life after death, that there's something behind the veil. And, to that young man, burning "money" was helping someone out in that after life where he knows he will go some day. So, good for him. All he needs to do now is to accept Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour and he'll KNOW where he's going. He'll know that death has no sting. He'll know that he has a "free pass" into Heaven straight through those pearly gates. And that's not superstition.