Let Us Shine!

In her modest but lovely little home in Japan, the widow of Toyohiko Kagawa, one of the great Christians of modern times, often received visitors from foreign lands who wanted to learn more about her late husband. She talked about his early life when he had been orphaned and left with relatives who mistreated him. He contracted tuberculosis and believed that he was dying (which he was). She talked about the dramatic religious experience that came to him: he saw a blinding light in his room and immediately sensed that he was surrounded by God’s healing Presence. And he was healed by this experience: transformed, physically and spiritually, both. After all the hardship and suffering Kagawa had been through, one might have expected him to say something like, “This is God acting in my life. I’m going to treasure the experience within myself. Just God and me!” Instead, he opened himself up totally. He moved into an incredibly horrible slum where, for many years, he…