The Taste of Incense

11/5/07 am, Monday morning. Today was a 'vision day', of getting to understand the culture and people of Hong Kong. The highlight of the morning was visiting an area that has three temples on one location... the largest Buddhist temple in HK, a Confucianism temple, and a Taoist temple. They are all together in one place b/c so often the people want to take the best of each of the faiths, to combine them to whatever works best for their situation. We saw numerous of the faithful who carried their bundles of burning incense from one temple to the others, kowtowing to Buddha, whispering prayers, laying out fruit and gifts for the deceased, tossing out fortune-telling reeds. Patrick is an excellent tour guide for understanding eastern religions. He knows the details and sees the big picture (BTW, I recommend his book, "Passage to Faith"). In these belief systems, the human is such a small and insignificant nothing.. and the concept of a God who could love us and have grace to want a relationship with us is unheard of... this is why it can be such Good News to these people! I've been in temples before, but not one with as many worshippers as today, and with as much activity and ritual. I have smelled like incense all day and have had the taste on my tongue even after two meals and even now at 1am. It has reminded me all day of this experience and of these belief systems. I am thankful that my God CARES for me... and that the Word says that the prayers of the ones who call him Lord are as of a sweet fragrance unto Him!