Christmas Reflection

Today is 28 Dec 2014.  Christmas has come and gone.  The year has come to a close.

This year has not been a great year to me.  Just before Christmas, on 17 Dec, I received news that my friend Terrence Thomas passed away.  He was younger than me.  Together with the demise of my eldest sister, my mother, my father and my father-in-law, the past 3 years was a painful time of breaking bond and some regrets.  I still dream of my parents almost every week.

Perhaps it is part of the life cycle that we all have to go through.  At my age, it may be natural to see more and more people leaving.

I too understand that to live, we should not think too much about death, and after every incidence of death around us, we need to close the subject and move on quickly.

But it is easier say than done.

Christmas is a time when I remind myself of Christ’s incarnate and His purpose to come die on the cross for me.  'Silent Night' was the most beautiful carol ever, and it romanticize the love of God.  As I knelt before the cross this Christmas, I thank God for life, for His blessings, the love of people around me, and the love of people departed from me.  I seek forgiven for my failures to live up to God asked of me, just as I had failed to live up to my departed parents' expectation from me.

It has been an emotional time for me.  Thank you for reading this blog entry.

No Human, Not Even Jesus, Knows When -- Christ's Second Coming

Since God is the creator, God is outside the time dimension.  God's perspective of time is totally different from human's perspective of time.

In Isaiah 7:14, God told His people, "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you (yes you, the people who were listening) a sign: Behold a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel...".  However, the timing was not what the people expected.  Immanuel did not come in that generation, but over 500 years, or over 20 generations later.

When reading the New Testament, we must not put a time to future events such as the Second Coming of Christ.  Regarding this, Jesus said "But of that day and how, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone." Matt 24:36.

When Jesus was on earth as a human, He was no longer omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent.  He was limited in time and space and knowledge, as all humans are.

So when Jesus told people of His generation that 'This generation will not pass away till all these things take place." Matt 24:34, this did not take place.  By being wrong, He actually proved Matt 24:36 correct !!!

It is reassuring that Jesus, while He was human, made mistakes in timing like all humans.

So the lesson is clear.  We should not predict Christ's second coming.  It may be close, it may be very far away.

Merry Christmas 2014

Joe failed to understand Dad's love

I hope this is not a true story.  It happened before the mobile phone era.

Joe completed his tour of duty in the war in Middle East.  He was flown back to San Francisco.  He called his parents in New York. 
"I'm really glad you are coming home son." said Dad.
"Just a few more days, Dad.  By the way, I would like to bring a friend with me." Joe said.
"Sure, and who is he?"
"Dad, his name is Peter.  He stepped on a landmine and lost an arm and a foot.  He has nowhere to go. Can I bring him home and live with us permanently?  Joe replied.
"Son, you don't understand what you are asking.  It will be too much for us to look after Peter.  We have our lives to go on. Surely Peter has somewhere else to go and someone to look after him? Dad replied.
The phone call ended shortly.

3 days after, Dad received a call from the police that his son Joe had apparently committed suicide.  When Dad went to identify the body, he was stunned that Joe was without an arm and a foot.

Lesson:  Joe should not do what he did.  He should not test his Dad.   Joe did not grasp the immense greatness of parental love.  He did not did not really appreciate the different types of love.

A parent's love to his own child is not the same as his love to another person's child.  There are many parents who have severely handicapped children who require life-long care.  Yet these parents are prepared to forsake everything, glory, freedom, wealth, worldly enjoyment, and even their own lives, to look after their own handicap children for 20 years, 50 years, 80 years. But ask them, the same parents, to adopt someone else's handicap children and accord them the same sacrifice, the answer is no.

Love is like that.  Joe's Dad can sacrifice much, or readily sacrifice everything, for Joe's sake.  But do not expect him to do the same for Peter, who was just another person in the world of 7 billion.  Parental love could be sacrificial.  Other human love could come and go, wax and wane, or turn hot and cold.

There was no need for Joe to use Peter to test his Dad's love.  Joe was the begotten son.  Peter was not.

"So then, you are no longer a slave but a son.  And since you are a son, God will give you all that he has for his sons." Gal 4:7.

Christ has freely invited us to be sons of God.  You decide.