A Gold Tooth

Although I was saved from the edge of death, still I wondered, "Is it true that Jesus saved me? Is there really a God like Jesus? I had been always having shots and taking medicine. Mrs. Wu, who lead me to believe in the Lord, taught me to read the Bible and a devotional book called STREAMS IN THE DESERT by Mrs. Charles Cowman. "Pray and read the Bible everyday," she said. "Pour out your sins by confessing to the Lord. Do as the Word of the Lord teaches you, and you will be blessed and have peace and joy." She emphasized on the fact that "if there is a sin that we cannot overcome, such as jealousy or hatred, we can fast, pray, and ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen us to overcome that sin." I could only pray a few words since I did not understand much of the Bible. I felt it was boring. For this reason I usually did not follow her words, and I thought it did not matter whether I read the Bible or not.  Still it was greatly amazing that it was just as she said. Whenever I did not pray or read the Bible, I would have accidents or worry. I would also either quarrel with people or lose my temper, and my heart would be filled with darkness and pain. Whenever I studied the Bible and prayed, I had peace and joy.  "I must not ignore her words. What she said is real, "I thought to myself secretly.  After this I was determined that I would spend a few minutes in prayer and that I would read some Bible every morning. To tell the truth, one reason I prayed was that I saw in foreign movies how lovely some of the little girls dressed in nightgowns looked as they knelt before the bed praying. I felt that it was so much fun to imitate them.  After all, I was only a young girl of fourteen!

Since I was very weak after this serious illness, my mother took me to Nanping and other cities in Fujiang as she thought travelling would build up my health. We lived in a company house of my father's friend. Every day I followed those female clerks who dressed up like flowers as they went to play and have fun. Wanting to be beautiful, I followed their ways of putting on makeup. My heart yearned for worldly pleasures. I even resented the few minutes of quiet time I had in the morning and evening. Finally I simply said, "good bye" to the Lord and stopped praying. I followed my own desires to have fun from morning till evening.

At that time, a doctor came to give me tonic shots every day, and I went to a dentist to have my teeth filled. One day I was eating with the female clerks, and we were eating fish and laughing at the same time. When the doctor who gave me the tonic shot saw what we were doing, he said: "You should be careful about the fish bone! Yesterday my assistant's fiance came from Foujou to visit him. They grabbed the chicken, and they were laughing and eating. Unexpectedly the girl choked on the chicken bone and died in the evening."

The next day I went to the dentist for a filling and the insertion of a false tooth. An old gold tooth that had been poorly inserted needed to be removed and replaced. Although the dentist had been working on it for several days, he could not remove it. That day he finally dug it out; however, it fell right into my throat and I swallowed it.  How awful it was!  Could a gold tooth choke a person just like a chicken bone? I was so scared that I cried. Who could understand how I felt knowing that there was a gold tooth in my stomach? This was a matter of life and death. It must be that I had forsaken the Lord, and He went to the back of the house was using sufferings to cause me to return to Him. When at home, I knelt down, confessed my sins, and asked the Lord to save me. The doctor prescribed a cathartic. Someone suggested that I eat lots of chive. The next morning I had bowel movement, my maid and I went to the back of the house beside a creek to dump out my discharge on a rock. Then my maid used a twig to poke about to see whether or not the gold tooth had been discharged. We looked for my gold tooth like this for three days and we did not find it. I spent those three days with much fear and worry. There was danger that I would die any moment. I felt like Jonah trapped in the stomach of a fish and I prayed earnestly. On the third afternoon, the female clerks wanted to go boating on the South lake. Although my mother and I were worried about the gold tooth, which had not been discharged, I did not feel any pain, so we decided to go out with them to the lake in spite of our worry. Just as we walked out the door, we met an old friend of my father. He had come to visit us, so my mother returned home to entertain him. I still went with the female clerks to play until dusk. When I returned home the maid told me: "Today the mistress was scared to death. That guest had knowledge of medicine. When he heard that you had swallowed a gold tooth and had not discharged it for three days, he rebuked your mother for being so careless as to let you go out to play. He said that she should have taken you to take an X-ray and ask the doctor to perform an operation to take out the gold tooth. If the gold tooth hooks onto the internal organs, one will die. Your mother was so worried that she could not do anything. She asked me to go with her to check your discharge for the past few days. Luckily it was all piled up on the rock beside the creek. She rubbed it with her hands and found the gold tooth that had been changed to a dark color!" Because its color had changed, my maid and I had not seen it. Only the love of a mother who did not mind how dirty it was and used her hands to rub and search for it could find it. Now everything was all right! All of us felt relieved. I also resumed my fellowship with the Lord and began to pray every morning and evening.

The Lord knew how hardened my heart was; even swallowing a gold tooth would not scare me. Therefore, He first allowed me to hear that a chicken bone would choke people to death, so that I would recognize the danger of swallowing a gold tooth. He did not let me quickly find out that the gold tooth had been discharged so as to force me to seek Him earnestly during those three days and nights. Lovingly the Heavenly Father leads His rebellious and arrogant children with cords of human kindness, with ties of love to return to Him at all times and anywhere. He wants to guide our steps from the deadly pit to the way of eternal life. Who can discern His great love?