Yao Nien Yuan

She became ecstatic when a spider joined her in her prison cell. Most of us have little use for spiders, but when you spend six and a half years in solitary confinement, even a spider’s company can serve as company. She watched this tiny spider crawl through the rusty bars of her small, dark cell and attach a silken thread from the bar to the ceiling. The spider spun thread after thread until it had created a web of exquisite beauty. She marveled at her new cell mate’s determination to build its new home. Who had taught this creature to spin a web of such intricate design? She thanked God for what she had just witnessed. It served as a vivid reminder that God is in control. Mao Zedong and his brutal prison guards seemed far less menacing now. She felt a renewed sense of confidence and trust. Yao Nien Yuan (1915-2009) endured torture and extreme deprivation until the Mao Zedong regime announced her “rehabilitated” and let her go. She was informed that her only child, a daughter, had committed suicide during her incarceration. Yao investigated and discovered that the Red Guard had killed her daughter for refusing to renounce her mother. She left China, moved to Washington, DC and wrote a book about her ordeal in 1987, Life and Death in Shanghai. She was not permitted reading material during her confinement, but she carried Psalm 23 in her head. She prayed the psalm at all hours of the day and night, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…He restores my soul…He guides me …Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil.” Psalm 23 shifts at the end from a pastoral setting to a table with enemies as dinner guests. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. My cup overflows.” We join in praying with Yao the words of Psalm 23. Pray these words slowly today. Draw in God’s reassuring presence even in difficult circumstances. The Lord is my shepherd: