It was in 1976, if my memory serves me right. I was traveling overseas in response to an invitation to give a series of lectures about the Bible. As I watched the flight attendants carrying out their work on the plane, my preconceived ideas about their profession began to change a little. They were so busy that it seemed as though theirs was the busiest job in the world. I had been extremely busy myself the previous day so I took a nap for a couple of hours to catch up on some of my missed sleep and when I woke up I found the flight attendants were still busily hurrying back and forth without any rest. Now and then, one of them would bend over, clutching her stomach with a look of agony on her face, but even so she made a great effort to continue her task of serving the meals to the passengers. As I watched her, I felt very sorry for her.
In the past when I had seen bus conductresses or female laborers, I had wanted to help them and indeed at times I did. I had not thought, however, that my sympathy might extend to people like flight attendants these days whose profession would appear to be one to be envied. The occupation of flight attendant is still considered quite a good one for women in my country. When these attractive young women put in a brief appearance at the airport, dressed up in their uniforms, they even look quite noble. But I wondered if anyone watching them as they went about their work would be able to say that their professional life was of a high standard. Even occupations like this, which we might consider as being on the better side, do not turn out to be quite so appealing when you look into them. It seems that there is no perfect profession in this world. We are always living in the midst of insufficiency and imperfection. This is because man himself is imperfect.
The Chinese character for “man” is formed with just two strokes of the pen, each supporting the other. If you removed either one of these strokes, the other would fall. I do not know who invented this character, but whoever it was certainly made a good job of it. It expresses the need for people to live in close relation to one another, helping and depending on one another.
There are probably many people who would affirm that they enjoy harmonious and close relationships with their families, relatives and friends. Even so, these people will also feel as though something is missing from their lives. Probably everyone would acknowledge this after giving the matter even just a little consideration. This is because their relationship with God is not as it should be.
I once had occasion to take a look around a large hall in a huge building. Even though it was such a large hall, there wasn’t a single pillar to be seen in the middle of it, and I marveled at the wide-open space that was thus available. I examined every nook and cranny of the building to see how it had been designed. At first glance, the lofty roof of the building appeared to be very simply constructed, almost like a piece of paper folded in half. When I examined it more carefully, however, it became evident that it had been planned in minute detail and not an inch of it had been left untouched. Without pillars, a building will have a concise style, but its construction will have involved far more complicated thoughts in the mind of the architect than would be necessary when constructing such a building with a lot of pillars. Complex calculations would be required in order to design and construct such a building without any pillars if it is to be sound according to the laws of construction and dynamics and not be in danger of collapsing. So I could see that in order to construct a building in a simple style, the plans need to be more detailed than would be the case for a more complex building.
Man’s outward appearance might seem to be simpler than that of animals with their tails and covering of hair, but the functions of man’s brain are far more complicated. And the mind—that invisible part of man—is even more complex than the physical structure of his body. Man in his complexity continues to maintain his existence because of the life within him that holds together all the cells of his body. Once this life departs, all the cells that make up the body decompose, turning into dust.
