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.

在一個晴空無際的馥麗秋日，我乘火車蜿蜒於康乃迪克的叢林，當行駛過一座橋時，火車經過了水邊的一片綠地，是一個岸邊公園。我從閱讀著的書本抬起頭來，恰巧望窗外的一幕：一對老夫妻在散步，而他們的兩隻狗在草地上跳躍玩耍。我正待轉頭回到書本上時，突然看到那老太太舉起雙臂向火車揮舞，是那麼喜悅盡情的用力揮舞！然後火車就過了橋，我們又回到叢林中。

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，思索著剛才所見的景象。是巧合嗎？在那女士揮舞雙臂時我正好抬眼望向窗外？或者我一直被驅使著，於此刻到達此地，特為來接受此一信息？我知道她是無法看進較暗的火車窗內，無法得知是否我或其他乘客看見了她在揮手。同樣的，若有人在車內向她招手，她亦無從知曉。

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.

然而我覺得最美的，正是她揮舞時不求回報的率真。她只是喜悅地向一個很可能不會有回應的世界致上問候之意──事實上對她而言，這世界確實也沒有反應。

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.

經上記載，主耶穌要求門徒白白得來，也要白白捨去，絲毫不求回報。但不幸的是，今天我們處於凡事求報償，若有善行便要回饋的時代，果真生命、天國就只如一個宇宙中的銀行戶頭，而我們生存的唯一目的即是累積屬靈的資金？但願不是；否則我們豈不成了帕芙洛維安所訓練的狗一般，聽到命令就為了想得神的糖果而流口水罷了。

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.

我們究竟為什麼被造？神又為什麼愛我們？現在我們也許還不知道答案。但可確知的是，神一直在撐持著我們、愛我們。生命本身、愛、對未來之事的盼望，都是神給我們的賞賜。若我們已領受了許多，豈不也當同樣地施予別人嗎？因每一次，即使我們只是付出一點點愛給他人，都是從那口永不乾涸的聖愛之井，汲出水來，滋潤這世界啊！

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.

每當我想起那天的火車之旅，那位女士及她的揮舞，仍然流連在秋日的陽光中，成為我們生活在這宇宙中共同的提醒：一個愛的手勢，可以如星光跳躍，越過時間、空間，甚至不同文化背景中理解上的隔閡。

（原[青年團契]1998年03月號）