"Hey, Glenn, we're thinking about going to Green Island for the weekend. It's just a quick boat ride from the harbor. Want to join us?"
"Sounds like a lot of fun. Sure!"
It was an autumn day in 1991. I was on hiatus from medical school to participate in a 6 month short-term medical missions project in Taitung, Taiwan. Some of the missionary doctors thought that it would be nice to spend the weekend at this local tourist spot, a small volcanic island about 21 miles offshore. Although I grew up in Taiwan, it had been a while since I was there, and I forgot a minor detail about the local climatic patterns.
"By the way, there's supposed to be a typhoon that is approaching in a few days. If the weather is too rough, we'll probably have to fly back instead."
As we waited for the boat in the harbor, one of the missionary doctors opened up a bottle of medication, and handed each person a tablet of meclizine, an anti-nausea medication, in case the waters got rough and we got seasick. While swallowing the pill, I looked out and saw a man strutting in with a large family idol. It was an elaborately carved and painted wooden figure that measured about 2-3 feet across and 2 feet high. He mentioned something about the idol protecting the boat during the trip. I guess he heard about the typhoon also.
The boat started to rock heavily as we entered deeper waters, and it didn't take long before many of the passengers started to look kind of miserable. A young boy who sat in front of me cried in fear for the entire trip, but his parents were vomiting, and too sick to pay much attention. A crew member staggered up and down the aisle passing out plastic bags. This was normally a quick 45-minute ride, but our Gilligan's Island-type voyage proved to be more than twice as long, as strong winds slowed down our progress. So much for protection from that big family idol. The man with the large wooden figure was vomiting just as badly as everyone else.
It is folly to think that a block of carved wood would provide protection from bad weather. The prophet Isaiah wrote about such idols made from wood, the same wood used also for making fire and cooking food,
From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships.
He prays to it and says, "Save me! You are my god!"
They know nothing, they understand nothing;
their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see,
and their minds closed so they cannot understand.
No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say,
"Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate.
Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left?
Shall I bow down to a block of wood?" (Isaiah 44 17:19)
God is not a block of wood that we carve with our own hands and carry around as a good-luck charm. Trusting in it would be foolish, but trying to make the return trip by the same boat would be equally unwise. We returned to Taitung by air the next morning, just as the local weather service sounded the typhoon warning.
