The Gift of the Worn Velvet - "Where Did This Come From?"

I dreamed I was rushing and running around with a whole group of young people — second generation youth of the church movement — all of us putting on our clothes and preparing to meet Holy Mother Han. I couldn't find my own clothes. I went from one room to another, managing to find a top, but still walking around in my underwear, half-ready, half-exposed.

And then I was in her presence — and somehow the clothes didn't seem to matter anymore. I was fully dressed. The anxiety of the moment before simply dissolved.

I found myself in what looked like a church chapel, which is at times also used as a prayer hall — the kind of place where I, along with thousands of other followers, would usually gather at our church Holy Ground at the Cheonbo Training Center to offer prayer devotion. But the hall was almost empty, and Holy Mother Han was sitting not at the center of the stage but on the left side of the hall, against the wall, on a simple chair. Since her photo or her presence was usually at the front of the hall, elevated and central, there was something quietly disarming about seeing her there — so still, so close, so unguarded.

She was wearing a Korean hanbok. I walked up to her to offer a gift I had prepared — a beautiful soft velvet deep green suit jacket and a long velvet skirt. I remember that it shimmered with a golden light. I knelt before her and placed the clothing over her thighs. She stroked the fabric, and I could see that she loved touching it — it was very soft and lush. She asked me in Korean, "어디서 났어?" — a warm, casual phrase an elder might use with someone younger, carrying the gentle wonder of Where did this come from? rather than a simple transactional question. I told her it was mine — it had been mine — and I wanted to give it to her. Inside, a small doubt flickered: how could I give her something already worn, something used? But she was so happy to receive it. She smiled and smiled, and thanked me — not in words, but in something deeper than words. I felt her love and happiness move through me, full and complete.