Who Else but God?

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear?” Psalm 27:1

My sister Tina and her husband Pat decided to make the two day journey to Nagasaki from their home in Nagano, Japan. I asked Tina if there’s anything she found there in Nagasaki about Takashi Nagai as his name keeps coming up in the Hallow app’s meditations for Lent. And she responded there’s so so much about Takashi Nagai. I had never heard of him previously and I find his story fascinating especially as it is set against the backdrop of Japan where an estimated 2,000 Christians were martyred for their faith. 

Takashi is just one of the many converts in Japan who decided to follow Jesus. For the Japanese converts it was so difficult as many of them were crucified, hung upside down in excrement, whipped until death, and had to endure many different kinds of torture. 

Takashi was raised according to the teachings of Confucius and the Shinto religion. He became a Catholic convert after his mother died and he stayed with the Moriyamas, a pious Catholic family. The mourning young man later wrote, “I was so sure that there was no such thing as a soul. But my mother's eyes told me that the human spirit lives after death. I could not but believe this.” He became a doctor and devoted his life to prayer, healing, service and forgiveness. 

Even after he survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945, where thousands of people, including his beloved wife, Midori, were reduced to ashes, he continued to heroically help the wounded without medicine or supplies. In one of the twenty books he eventually wrote, he said that in those days of tremendous suffering, something amazing happened. ‘An undeniable hope awakened in Takashi’s heart. A newness, a life far stronger than all the death and destruction he surveyed rose up in him.’ He wrote, “I felt liberated. I felt that I had to seek the kingdom and His righteousness.”

Who else but God can give light in the darkness, and hope amidst horrific destruction?