These are the Generations

by Eric Foley

So everyone in my family who would have been killed in China had already left for North Korea, saved by the voice of God that had come to my grandfather. Everyone in the family who could be spared in China somehow stayed.

Who can forget that first glimpse of the land outside of North Korea? We were greeted by a blaze of Christmas lights. Christmas—I had almost forgotten! The birth of Emmanuel, God with us: Surely God is with us.

When my husband was little, my husband’s mother asked my husband’s grandfather, “Dad, did you really hear God’s voice?” When he told her yes, she pressed him for all the details. He shared how God’s voice had been especially clear to him when he had been fasting, praying, or sleeping. My mother-in-law told him that she’d like to hear God as he had heard. She was sad that she couldn’t hear God, and she prayed for a faith as deep as his. When my husband was a boy, he and his family were exiled to the barren countryside when his mother refused to turn away even a criminal in need. And when her husband reminded her that it was this kindness that had consigned the family to such a place, she replied, “We should always live out our faith every moment and never let it be shaken.”

“Remember those who are in prison,” we are admonished in Hebrews 13:3 (ESV), “as though in prison with them.” If we are not careful, we will misread this verse as a call to pity Christians like Mr. Bae’s parents. But if we are careful, we will read it as a call to imitate them. This does not mean that we will march to the concentration camp door, knock on it, and demand to be admitted any more than it did for the Baes or the first Christians. Instead, it means that when we find ourselves in dark places, rather than focusing our thoughts on escape, we will instead seek to emit light. Or, as Mr. Bae’s mother once said, “Why am I supposed to be afraid of anything? God is on my side, and he’ll make a way for us. Even in the hard times, he’ll solve all our problems. But why should we focus on the difficulties?”

The Lord granted Mr. Bae’s mother’s prayer for faith as deep as her father’s. There are few well-lit and comfortable paths to such a place. May the Almighty God of the Baes bless them with continued faithful service across all their generations until he returns. And may we imitate them as they continue to imitate him, even in the darkest place in the darkest country on earth.