An Xmas Sacrifice

It was bitterly cold Christmas eve in Korea in 1952. A pregnant young Bak Yoon hobbled through the snow toward the home of a missionary friend where she knew she could find help. Tears of sorrow froze on her face as she mourned for her husband. He had recently been killed in the Korean War, and she had no one else to turn to.

A short way down the road from the house was a deep gully spanned by a bridge. As Bak Yoon stumbled forward, birth pains suddenly overcame her. She fell, and realising that she could go no further, crawled under the end of the bridge.

There, cold and alone, her baby boy was born. Bak Yoon had nothing with her except her heavy padded clothes. One by one she removed all the pieces of her clothing and wrapped them around her tiny son, still connected to her body by his umbilical cord. Then, exhausted, she lay back in the snow beside him.

The next morning, Miss Watson, a long-time missionary, drove across the bridge to take a basket of food to a needy Korean family. On her return, as she neared the bridge, the car sputtered and stopped. It was out of petrol. She got out and started across the bridge. Through crunching snow under her feet, she heard another sound - a baby's faint cry. She hesitated, stopped, then heard the cry again.

"It's coming from beneath this bridge!"

Miss Watson crawled under the bridge to investigate. There she saw a tiny, bundled baby, warm but hungry, and Bak Yoon frozen in death. With a knife from her tool box, she cut the cord and took the baby home. After caring first for the child, she, along with some helpers, brought Bak Yoon's body back to near where she lived and buried her there.

She named the baby Soo Park, and adopted him. He was strong and healthy and grew up among many other orphans that she cared for. But to her, he was special. She often told him, "Your mother had great love for you, Soo Park," and about how she had proved that live. The boy never tired of hearing about his beautiful mother.

On Christmas day, his 12th birthday, snow fell non-stop. After the children had helped Soo Park celebrate, he went and sat beside Miss Watson.

"Mother Watson, do you think God made your car run out of petrol the day you found me?"

"Perhaps He did. If that car hadn't stopped, I would not have found you. But I'm so glad it did. I love you and am very proud of you, Soo Park." She hugged him and he rested his head against her.

"Will you please take me out to my mother's grave? I want to pray there. I want to thank her for my life."

"Yes, but put on your heavy coat. It's very cold."

Beside the grave, Soo Park asked Mother Watson to wait a distance away. As the astonished missionary watched, the boy began to take off his warm clothing, piece by piece. Surely he won't take off all his clothing, she thought. He'll freeze!

But the boy stripped himself of everything, laid it on his mother's grave, and knelt shivering in the snow.

Miss Watson waited one minute, then two. Then she put her gloved hand on his snow-covered shoulder. "Come, Soo Park. Your mother in Heaven sees how much you love her. I will help you dress."

In deep sorrow, the boy cried out to the mother he never knew: "Were you colder than this for me, my mother?" And he wept bitterly because he knew, of course, that she was.

Sent to Starmag by Pat Chan