Slow and Small Are Good Part 2

You can read or listen to the first half of my story here.

We left Charlotte as she finally gained the courage to join Mei and Bo as they went to go see … we don’t know what yet!

As before, you can scroll to the end to listen to the audio if you’d rather listen than read. Enjoy!

The air felt cool and a small breeze blew Charlotte’s hair out of her face. Thankfully the stinky tofu vendor was gone, and she could smell the sweet fragrance of the Osmanthus tree. She had been told about how lovely its scent was, but hadn’t been able to smell it before now.

As they walked, Bo asked Charlotte where she was from.

“I’m from the States. From Michigan.”

Mei said, “I got to travel to the States once! I went to California for a month for a student exchange program. I think what I loved most was the chocolate chip cookies my host mom made me every night! I’ve missed them so much since coming home. I once tried to make them myself, but couldn’t get them quite right.”

Just then Charlotte noticed that the night was getting brighter. She looked at Mei, who glanced over at her and said, “Just wait!”

The closer they got to the park, the brighter the night got, but it wasn’t a light like anything Charlotte had ever seen before. It had color to it, lots of different colors, more colors than she knew light could hold.

Finally they turned the last corner and Charlotte could see clearly. There was a man, at least she thought it was a man, standing in a grassy area, but he was … glowing! Streams of light shimmered and danced all around the man as he slowly moved in a series of motions that Charlotte recognized from the elderly people she saw doing Tai Chi every morning in this same park on her way to work. Whorling colors — reds, blues, greens, purples, pinks, yellows — flickered and danced all around the man as he slowly and gently moved through his motions.

There was a hush in the night as people came and went, some briefly watching on their way to somewhere else, and some stopping to sit for a time. Charlotte looked for a long time, hardly breathing. It was the most glorious and beautiful sight she’d ever seen.

All three of them were quiet on the way back, but it was a comfortable, contented kind of quiet. Words would have felt intrusive after the time spent gazing at such beauty. That night Charlotte fell to sleep immediately and slept deeply all night.

The next day Charlotte had trouble keeping her mind focused during all of her classes. She just kept thinking about the exquisite light she had seen the night before. What a gift from God! It brought people so much joy and peace. Why did that man stay in the same park night after night? He could do so much more for people if he traveled around, if he rented out big venues and advertised. Think of the people they could reach if they teamed up together! The more she thought about it, the faster her heart beat. She knew, just knew that this was why God had asked her to come to China!

That night on the walk to the park, she asked Mei and Bo if they knew the man. Bo said, “His name is Yuxuan. I’ve seen him at the Ninghai Restaurant sometimes at lunch and chatted with him. He’s a street sweeper by day.”

“A street sweeper?! Someone who is so radiant at night is a street sweeper during the day?!”

Mei laughed. “Someone has to keep the streets clean! Street sweeping is an honorable service. Does a street sweeper have to be ugly?” She winked.

Charlotte blushed. “I mean … no … of course not. I didn’t mean … “

Mei laughed again. “It’s alright. It is a bit strange.”

They reached the park, and the hush they entered reminded Charlotte of the time she had visited the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis.

Beautiful.

Holy.

Again she watched for a long time. Again she slept peacefully.

The next morning she made up her mind. She would find Yuxuan and ask him to join her in her mission of preaching the gospel. She thought again of how many more people they could reach together. No more wasting her time trying to build relationships one person at a time. She could reach so many at once!

She knew the restaurant Bo had mentioned, and walked over to it on her lunch break. It felt humid inside and the scent of soy sauce and garlic made her stomach rumble. Sure enough, there he was, sitting at a table in the corner. He was deftly picking up the last grains of rice with his chopsticks while reading a newspaper. Charlotte went quickly over and slid with a loud bang into a chair on the other side of the table. Yuxuan’s eyebrows rose and he jerked back in his chair a little.

“Hi! My name is Charlotte. Are you Yuxuan?”

Her breath was coming too quickly. He just looked at her for a moment.

“Oh. I’m sorry. Do you speak English?”

A moment more, then slowly, “Yes, I do. Hello, Charlotte. I am pleased to meet you.”

He spoke slowly and calmly, looking full into Charlotte’s eyes.

“I am so glad to get to meet you and speak with you. Your nighttime radiance is such a gift to everyone who experiences it. Thank you for sharing it night after night!”

Yuxuan smiled and again waited a beat before responding. “You are very welcome. Any gift from the Creator must not be kept to myself. Just having the gift is a calling to share that gift in the place He has put me in.”

“Exactly!!” Charlotte yelled, slamming her palm on the table, then immediately shrank back into her chair, blushing. “Ah … sorry. I didn’t mean to get that loud. I was just excited.”

Yuxuan laughed softly. “It is okay. It is right to be excited about what the Creator does.”

“Well, that’s exactly why I wanted to find you. You are gifted with a beauty that draws people in and gives them peace as they glimpse our God. I was called to China to tell people about Jesus. What if we worked together? We could travel all over China, rent out huge arenas every night! People would come from all over to see your shimmering light, and then stay to hear me teach the gospel! Think how many we could reach for God!!”

The longer Charlotte spoke, the louder her voice grew. By the end, she was leaning halfway across the table. When she had finished, Yuxuan just looked at her with his steady, serene gaze for a long time.

Charlotte held her breath.

For what seemed like hours.

“No.”

…

“I … no?”

“No.”

“But … I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t you want to reach as many people for God as you could?”

Yuxuan leaned forward a little, still keeping that unwavering gaze fixed on Charlotte. “Because God has not called me to reach all of the people. He has called me to bring beauty to the people of this town. Do you not think the people of this town need a glimpse of God’s beauty in their lives?”

“Well … yes … but isn’t more always better?”

Yuxuan sat back and said simply, “No.”

Charlotte slumped back in her chair.

Yuxuan took a last sip of his tea, wiped his mouth with his napkin, set a few bills on the table, and quietly stood up. As he moved past Charlotte on his way out, he looked down at her and put a hand on her shoulder. “Slow and small are good.”

And then he was gone.

Charlotte sat there until the waitress came over and with an arched eyebrow and a hand on her hip asked her if she wanted to order anything. Slowly Charlotte stood up and without saying anything walked out of the restaurant.

She walked back to the university, not really seeing anything around her, just thinking. Her afternoon classes drifted past. She didn’t really remember teaching them.

That night she made sure to leave her apartment well before Mei and Bo would be leaving and walked over to the park on her own. She climbed a tree so that she could be away from others but still see the shimmering, dancing light.

She watched from the moment Yuxuan arrived until the moment he left. She feasted her soul on the light, on the way the glow moved with Yuxuan’s movements, the way the colors shifted and bled into each other, forming new colors she had never seen before.

And she listened to God.

The next morning, she woke up early and began baking chocolate chip cookies.