撰文／Julius Tsai ．蓝溪 译 ｜圣灵月刊246期-1998.03｜主题／[青年团契]耶稣的天国消息
A MAGNIFICENT, blue-sky day... I was on a train, wending through the Connecticut woods in fall. Crossing over a bridge, the train passed a bayside park, a patch of green by the water. I look up from my book and out the window as the scene flitted by. An elderly couple was walking, their two dogs cavorting on the grass. I was about to return to my book, when suddenly I saw the woman raise her ram and wave to the train a wide, sweeping joyful wave. And then we were over the bridge, back in the woods.
在一个晴空无际的馥丽秋日，我乘火车蜿蜒于康乃迪克的丛林，当行驶过一座桥时，火车经过了水边的一片绿地，是一个岸边公园。我从阅读着的书本抬起头来，恰巧望窗外的一幕：一对老夫妻在散步，而他们的两只狗在草地上跳跃玩耍。我正待转头回到书本上时，突然看到那老太太举起双臂向火车挥舞，是那么喜悦尽情的用力挥舞！然后火车就过了桥，我们又回到丛林中。
I settled back in my seat and thought about what I had just seen. Was it coincidence that I had lifted my eyes to look out at precisely the moment when the woman waved?Have I been hurtling toward this place this time just to receive this message? I knew that the woman could not see into the darkened windows of the train she would never know that I or anyone else had seen her wave and if anyone on the train had waved back it would likewise be hidden from her.
我靠回椅背，思索着刚才所见的景象。是巧合吗？在那女士挥舞双臂时我正好抬眼望向窗外？或者我一直被驱使着，于此刻到达此地，特为来接受此一信息？我知道她是无法看进较暗的火车窗内，无法得知是否我或其他乘客看见了她在挥手。同样的，若有人在车内向她招手，她亦无从知晓。
But it was precisely the unacknowledged nature of her wave that was beautiful to me that in her joy she had sent out her greeting to a world that quite possibly world not respond, and for all she knew, did not respond.
然而我觉得最美的，正是她挥舞时不求回报的率真。她只是喜悦地向一个很可能不会有回应的世界致上问候之意──事实上对她而言，这世界确实也没有反应。
We read that Jesus commanded his disciples to give as they had been giver-freely, with nor thought of reward. Unfortunately, we live in a time where we have come to expect compensation for everything, payment for our goodness in some form or other. But is life, is heaven, really to be likened to a cosmic bank account, and our only purpose for being here is to pile up spiritual capital? Hopefully not, for then we would be no more than Pavlovian dogs, drooling on command to receive divine bonbons.
经上记载，主耶稣要求门徒白白得来，也要白白舍去，丝毫不求回报。但不幸的是，今天我们处于凡事求报偿，若有善行便要回馈的时代，果真生命、天国就只如一个宇宙中的银行户头，而我们生存的唯一目的即是累积属灵的资金？但愿不是；否则我们岂不成了帕芙洛维安所训练的狗一般，听到命令就为了想得神的糖果而流口水罢了。
Why were we created at all? Why does God love us? We may not know now, but we do know that God indeed does sustain us and love us. Life itself, love, and the hope for thing to come-these are our gifts. And if we have been given so much, ought we not to also act in the same way towards others? For every-time we show even the smallest measure of love for another, we are drawing from that inexhaustible well of divine love to refresh the world.
我们究竟为什么被造？神又为什么爱我们？现在我们也许还不知道答案。但可确知的是，神一直在撑持着我们、爱我们。生命本身、爱、对未来之事的盼望，都是神给我们的赏赐。若我们已领受了许多，岂不也当同样地施予别人吗？因每一次，即使我们只是付出一点点爱给他人，都是从那口永不干涸的圣爱之井，汲出水来，滋润这世界啊！
When I recall the train ride on that day, the woman and her wave still linger there I, the sun, a reminder of our common life in a universe where a gesture of love can leap, like a spark, across time, space, and even understanding.
每当我想起那天的火车之旅，那位女士及她的挥舞，仍然流连在秋日的阳光中，成为我们生活在这宇宙中共同的提醒：一个爱的手势，可以如星光跳跃，越过时间、空间，甚至不同文化背景中理解上的隔阂。
（原[青年团契]1998年03月号）