Rev. Heng Cheng understands insecurity. He was born in Cambodia just before the dawn of the Khmer Rouge regime and genocide of the 1970s. His mother died when he was three months old, and his father sold him for two gold beads. Cheng knows firsthand how fragile life can be, how to live knowing any moment could be his last. It was during this horrific genocide that Cheng found himself one bullet away from execution.
One morning, a Khmer Rouge soldier led him to the bank of the Mekong River and ordered him to get into the water. One can hardly imagine what Heng was feeling in that moment, knowing for certain this would be his end.
“If you can swim, you live. If you can’t, you die" the soldier said. A wave of relief. Cheng could swim. He escaped to Vietnam, married Soun Da, returned to Phnom Penh, and became General Secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of Cambodia.
Cheng's life is a living testimony to the prevalence of Truth and light even in the midst of the world's darkest moments. What was going through that soldier's mind in that moment? What led him to disobey orders and save the life of a man who meant nothing to him? It had to be Jesus.
We hear a story so similar to this in the Gospel of Matthew as Jesus is hanging on the cross. As Jesus drew his final breath, the earth shook, the sky grew dark, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. The centruion standing at the foot of the cross, seeing these miracles, could only come to one conclusion: "Truly this was the Son of God!" (Mt 27:54).
Lord have mercy on us. Lord continue to convict us of the goodness of life and Truth.