In Naju-city, South Korea, a shopkeeper-craftsman made frames for his brother’s art in a workshop cluttered with easels stretching painted canvasses. The brother-artist produced traditional Korean scenes, mostly mist-covered mountains and quiet streams flowing among groves of lotus trees. Each scene is complimented with poetry printed in stylized calligraphy. The artist is well-known and his art is expensive. The value of the paintings reflect their serenity and beauty, their sense of balance – and the fact that each is one-of-a-kind. Nobody else has a painting exactly like this one!
During a visit with the frame-making shopkeeper I mentioned a phrase that I had seen on a plaque inside a church. He told me that the expression was popular among Korean Presbyterians, and printed it out on newsprint in Korean characters using thick black brushes. We made a deal for a more well-finished copy.
The next day I returned to the shop and was presented with a sheet of heavy paper on which these Korean characters were displayed: 오직 예수. Translation: “Jesus only.” That sheet of paper became a souvenir eventually framed and mounted on our living room wall.
Christians appreciate the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved (Acts 4).
(ELS mission work in South Korea is conducted by the Asia Committee of the Board for World Outreach.)
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Steve Petersen
