Short Stories

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Copyright 2011, Dicky To

(Please don’t misunderstand that I am here to discourage you to visit Hong Kong.)

In Chicago, when my family and I go to a mall, we always take our time to browse around; there is no hurry. Other people in the mall amble along as well.

A few days after visiting the Wetland Park, we took trains to a shopping mall in the same neighborhood Tuen Mun. It was a huge mall with 400 shops and various kinds of restaurants. We went there to buy toys for our two boys, and my goal was to look for cook books for myself and for a very dear Christian friend.

This mall has changed as well. It had new shops and new constructions. The biggest change was it was filled with thousands of people, so crowded that we could not see which shop was which because they all blocked the view. There were a lot more shoppers than three years ago. More, the shoppers were always rushing here and there aimlessly. All of a sudden, a person or two may pass by you like a gust of wind. We had to keep ourselves alerted; otherwise we would be stepped on. My wife and I wondered why they had to hurry and how come they could not find time to enjoy shopping. It looked like that they would lose something if they did not rush.

After hours of shopping, we dined at a restaurant and ended a long day.

Days later, we visited other malls in other parts of the city. What we saw was the same: large crowds of people rushing here and there. We learned that shopping malls in Hong Kong were just like mini streets with thousands of people and hundreds of shops. There were no cars inside the malls, but people hurrying and bumping into each other.

What we could see in spiritual sense was that they seemed to worry about their lives in every single thing: job, school, and even shopping. I wished I could tell them what Jesus said in Matthew 11:29-30 (NIV): “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

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