By: Chef Niku
I remember the first time that I went to Japan. I was very excited to see this mysterious and wonderful country yet nervous about what to expect at the same time. Ever since I was younger, I had only dreamt of visiting Japan and seeing if it was really like how all the Japanese anime shows portrayed it to be. Thankfully, I was going with a short-term team, so I was not going alone and had some friends to process all of my new experiences. Only, I was not expecting on what was about to happen next.
As I was arriving in the Kansai airport in Osaka, I thought that I would have a rather easy and not too difficult time going through customs and immigration, which, for the most part, happened. I was just about to pass through the final inspection checkpoint when I was flagged down for a seemingly random inspection. The female security officer told me to bring my luggage over to the checkpoint and look through my luggage to make sure I was not smuggling anything into the country. She asked me to place my luggage on the table and what happened next is something I have never experienced before in another country.
She asked me to help her open my luggage so she can check and see what was in it. Then, as she was searching my luggage, she asked me to separate the items in my luggage so she could further inspect them and make sure that I was not bringing anything prohibited or selling anything in Japan. In all the foreign countries that I have visited, not once did the security officer EVER ask me for help in searching and inspecting my luggage. The kindest gesture was a note from the TSA stating they checked my luggage for anything prohibited.
I was surprised at how kind and pleasant this security officer was at the Kansai airport in Japan. I would say that left on me a very positive experience as I was entering the country of Japan. It could have been just her personality or who she was but I that is something that I will not soon forget. It was through that experience that the Lord reminded me of some very important truths to live by and not forget.
The security officer’s kindness and gentleness through such a normally invasive and uncomfortable situation that many people experience reminded me of how Christ responds in love and kindness towards us all. Paul writes to the Ephesians that they are to “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). Just as God was gracious and forgiving towards us when He sent Jesus to die for our sins and shameful acts, so are we to imitate God and respond in love and kindness towards others. Verse 31 talks about putting off bitterness and wrath and anger in which we are not to hold onto.
God worked in and through the security officer to remind me that I should “not love in word or talk but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18). We are not to just talk about loving and being kind to others, but God wants us to love others and be kind in actions. This is taking the truths of loving others and, in action, loving others as Jesus would have us to. I am very thankful that the Lord used this person at the Kansai airport to remind me to show His love and kindness to others and not just think about those things.
How about you? What ways can you love others around you and so honor Jesus by obeying Him?