During the Chinese New Year holidays my family had a chance to visit the Center of Traditional Arts in Yilan. The Center is noted for its preservation of Taiwanese culture and tradition, featuring various exhibitions and performing arts on a regular basis.

As we arrived in the Center, one staff guided us through the whole park including handcraft studios, outdoor theaters, modern Taiwanese arts exhibition halls and Guang-Hsiao Hall, a family house. As we got to the Guang-Hsia0 Hall, my daughters were playing inside and outside the Hall. The staff reminded my kids not to step on the threshold while playing. I knew what the staff meant because I was kept reminded of the threshold on which a person could not stand when I was little. I don’t know why but it is a taboo in our culture.

However, as I read the Bible, the answer is in it. In 1 Samuel 5:1-5 after the Philistines captured the Ark of the God of Israel, they carried it into the temple of their god Dagon. When the people found their image of Dagon falling with the face to the ground in front of the Ark, they set it up. But the next morning the same thing happened again. The image of Dagon fell face down before the Ark, his head and hands broken off and lying in the door. From then on neither the priests nor anyone are allowed to step on its threshold while entering the temple. As a result, the tradition could be handed down and become a taboo to us.

The Ark of God represents the presence of the Lord in ancient times. No one even so-called gods or goddesses could stand straight before the glorious and awesome God without falling down before him. But thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ through whom the veil is taken away and we may see the glory of the Lord in person.