Welcoming The Child

"Anyone who welcomes a little child such as this in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me, welcomes not me but the one who sent me" (Mark 9:37)

What does welcoming a little child mean? It means giving loving attention to those who are often overlooked...

Yesterday I was stopped on the street by a beggar. He asked me for some change to buy a bite to eat. He didn't expect any response, but when I gave him ten dollars he jumped up and said, "Thank you, thanks you very, very much." He was extremely surprised by this large gift, but I suddenly felt a deep sadness. I was on my way yo a meeting I did not want to muss, My gift was an excuse for walking on. I had not welcomed the beggar - I had just tried to feel generous. My "generosity" had revealed my deep resistance toward welcoming the "little child"..

To welcome the "little child" I have to become little myself. But I continue to wonder how great I am. Even my generosity can help me to feel great. But Jesus said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.." (Mark 9:35). Am I willing to become the servant of this beggar? By giving him ten dollars I became his master, who could make him say, "Thank you, thanks you very, very much."

It is becoming clear to me that I still have not understood that Jesus revealed his love to us by becoming our servant, and calls us to follow him in this way.

- Excerpt from "The Road to Daybreak - A Spiritual Journey" by Henri J.M. Nouwen

Slow Together Is Better Than Fast Alone!

During the meeting of the long-term assistants, Nick, who works with four handicapped men in the wood shop, spoke about his joys and frustrations. He explained how hard it is to do a job well and at the same time keep the needs of the handicapped men uppermost in mind. He wants to become a skillful and efficient carpenter, but realises that the product of his work are less important than the growing self-esteem of the men he works with. This requires a lot of patience and a willingness to let others do slowly what you yourself can do rapidly. It means always choosing work in which people much less capable than yourself can participate. It asks for a deep inner conviction that a slow job done together is better than a fast job done alone.

Nick told is how long it had taken him to come to this insight. At first he had been primarily concerned about learning the skills of carpentry from Joe, the director of the wood shop. He was very excited about learning a new trade. But then he came to see that his skillls were meant not just to make blackboards, play blocks, and coat hangers for kindergartens, but also and above all, to help four handicapped people grow in human dignity and self-reliance.

I found this out myself this afternoon when I went apple picking with Janice, Carol, Adam, Rose and their assistants. My attitude was to get the apples picked, put them in bags, and go home. But I soon learned that all of that was much less important than to help Rose pick one or two apples, to walk with Janice looking for apples that hang low enough so that she herself van reach them, to compliment Carol on her ability to find good apples, and just to sit beside Adam in his wheelchair under an apple tree and give him a sense of belonging to the group.

We finally collected four bags of apples, but eight people took more than an hour to do it. I could have done the work in half an hour. But efficiency is not L'Arche's (a community for handicapped people in France) most important word. Care is.

- Excerpt from "The Road to Daybreak - A Spiritual Journey", by Henri J.M. Nouwen

BUT AIYAH EVERYBODY WORKS FOR THE MONEY...

Friend A says:

"But aiyah everybody works for the money. If not (friend B) and me would be
stay home moms, (friend C) is still here cos no other work allows her to leave
office on time... etc"

"I know what you mean but Singapore society is as such. We are sucked in
viscious cycle... Unless you get out of here. We have many friends like you...
But gave up in the end cos of survival, a few of them are working towards
emigrating too, hoping to shield the next generation of what we are facing
now... Sad right?"

NATURALLY I AM NOT CHINESE

"... there were many different civilisations in China 3000 years ago. So it
really challenges us to rethink what we know about Chinese history"
- Tan Hui Sm, Deputy Director, Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore.

The Chinese ethnic group, known otherwise as the Han Chinese (汉人), Tang-ren (唐人), or Hua-ren (华人), is often propagated as a unified people group that had its origins in the Yellow River basin (or Central Plains) some 5000 years ago. This is a myth. In reality, the term encompasses a wide range of regional tribes, each with their own origins, history, culture, and identity. (In stating this, I am not even including the recognised minority groups in China such as the Miao, Tibetan, Hui etc). To state that all Chinese are the same would be akin to deny all nations within Europe of their own identities apart from being "European".

The common "Chinese" identity has its roots as a political tool to subjugate and assimilate the various groups under a dominant Han tribe that estalished itself into an imperial power in the Central Plains and finally conquered the other regions in modern China. The terms "Chinese" (derived from "Chin" or "Qin" - the first dynasty that "unified China"), "Han" and "Tang" all refer to the height of political and military dominance by this particular ethnic group. Hua-ren (华人) - derived from Zhong-hua (中华 - the literary name for China), is the modern equivalent of this propaganda tool.

It is argued that all Chinese are unified by a common Han language (汉语). In truth, the many people groups share the same written language only because the Qin emperor had forcibly burnt and destroyed all other forms of written text during a reign of terror, thus depriving the other people's of their own literary and historical heritage. This authentic diversity, however, is survived by the existence of spoken languages. Though widely termed as dialects and not languages, these verbals are clearly distinct. For example, the Minnan dialect used around the Fujian province, has only 46.1% mutual intelligibility with Mandarin (source: www.Glossika.com). Mandarin, used now as the standard spoken language for all Chinese, is in reality the dialect of the northern Chinese - where again the seat of political dominance lies in Beijing (literary: northern capital). By instituting Mandarin as the official national language, the other Chinese groups will in the long run gradually forfeit their own distinctiveness in subject to the northern Han tribe.

My ancestry is from southern China. I am Teochew, a people group from Chaozhou (潮州) region, now in east Guangdong province. The culturally and linguistically akin Chaozhou and the nearby Shantou city are together known as Chaoshan(潮汕). Although sometimes similar with the other southern Chinese groups such as the Hokkiens and Cantonese, our customs and manners are markedly different from those of the northern Chinese. Consciousness of this south-north divide is accented by the recent years' mass arrival of northern Chinese in Singapore, where most of the Chinese population's forebears had come from the south.

Interestingly, the separate distinctiveness between the southern Chinese, specifically the Chaoshan people, from the nothern Han has been backed by a recent genetic study. This 2006 report by the Center for Molecular Biology and Forensic Genetics Laboratory, Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong states:

"The phylogenic tree analysis based on the HLA-A and -B allele frequencies of
all the 10 Chinese ethnic groups revealed that Chaoshanese, while clustering in
general with the southern China-related Han Chinese, had the highest affinity to
the Mainland Minnanese, but separated distinctively from the northern Han
Chinese."

(See full report "Genetic link between Chaoshan and other Chinese Han populations: Evidence from HLA-A and HLA-B allele frequency distribution" in http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=16883565)

No wonder I am a dog lover - naturally, I am not Chinese.

ON BEING CHINESE AND A DOG-LOVER

"I LOVE birds and hate dogs. In this, I am not queer; I am merely Chinese. It just comes natural to me, as to all Chinese."

"I hate dogs exactly because they are so human. I am naturally kind to animals, as is well proved by the fact that I cannot delibrately crush a fly. But I hate any animal that pretends to be your friend, that comes and paws all over you. I like animals that know their place, and keep their place. I prefer donkeys... Be kind to a dog, yes, but why pet him and fondle him and hug him?"
- Lin Yutang in "With Love & Irony"

I cannot disagree more with Lin, even though I have been told since young that I too am a Chinese. I LOVE my dog. The number of Chinese dog owners in Singapore, and even China itself, testifies that it is not queer for Chinese to love dogs.

Yet Lin was not merely expressing a personal opinion on the love-hate relationship with Chinese and dogs. In Chinese expressions and idioms, dog is a term used for the lowest forms of life, such as enemies, traitors and slaves. Never call a Chinese a "dog", for that would be one of the greatest insult to him.

Dogs are truly so human. Dogs are individually survivors. At the same time, they live in close-knit communities. Some display higher levels of intelligence than others. But all of them are by nature sociable and loyal. Aggressive behaviour is only cultivated through prolonged abuse or intense fear. Dogs can be more human than we are.

On the contrary, I hate people exactly because we are so animal-like. I am naturally kind to people, as is well proved by the fact that I cannot delibrately crush another person. But I hate any person who pretends to be my friend, who comes and paws all over me. I like people who know their place, and keep their place. I prefer assess...

My different position from Lin's could be explained that we live in totally different time and space. Or even, the assumption that our common origins as "Chinese", is false altogether.

book review: WITH LOVE & IRONY by Lin Yutang

With Love & Irony is a fascinating collection of writings from one of the finest China-born English writers, Lin Yutang. First published in 1934, the book features many columns that he wrote for "Little Critic", a magazine in Nanjing, China.

Lin's works offer incredible perspectives into the existence of an English-educated Chinese, living at a tumultous period of China's history, when the ancient giants was coming to grasp to accomodate Western and modern influences into its society. It was a serious struggle that culminated in civil wars, revolutions, literary explosion of ideas and thought. Yet Lin successful brings the reader into this era with delightful wit and range of topics, such as "Mickey Mouse", "On Being Naked", "Confucius Singing in the Rain" and "Should Women Rule the World?".

Many illustrations of the dilemma being an English-educated Chinese offered by Lin in With Love & Irony can be easily appreciated by people in Singapore. Lin does not take sides with neither Western modernity nor the traditions of China. He argues for the benefits and strengths of both, without outrightly condemning them for their shortfalls. The experience of reading this work is enhanced by his attention to finer details in life, which gives a rich insight into daily life in 1930's China. His handling of issues related to Japanese and Western imperialism of the era, charaterised his even-handed and mature sensibility to life without hatred.

Lin (1885-1976) was born in Fujian province to a Christian minister. He was later educated in Saint John's University (Shanghai), Harvard University (master's degree), and University of Leipzig (doctorate. The Nobel Prize for Lierature nominee also played an instrumental role in the romanicization of the Chinese language.

Rating: Four stars out of five ****

MY DOG, MY DOG, WHY DID I NOT FORSAKE YOU?

I have a dog of my own. I did not plan, nor wanted to have one even when I was a child. Max just came to our house, and found his home.

It was an evening almost six years ago when my brother-in-law brought the Silky Terrier, which was found wandering alone lost in the rain, to our place. As he already had two dogs of his own, Max was brought over here temporarily until his owner was found. It was almost love at first sight for everyone in the family with the cute little creature with black and golden curls, as we allowed him to explore freely around our residence - a terrible mistake to be learnt only years later!

Despite notices placed in the area where he was picked up, and checks made with SPCA, no one came forward to claim the dog. Now soon, we knew why!

Max had a violent streak. In the coming days, everyone at home were chased and attacked by him, at total random. While adorable during most times, certain unknown factors seemed to trigger him to suddenly turn head and sink his canine deep into our flesh. Even jeans provided little cover. We had a mad dog.

A dog trainer was brought to assess him. Dog's have natural predisposition towards humans. The conclusion was Max was likely to have been abused before, and hence the unexplained fear of people and instinctive reaction to defend himself. We had a victimised dog.

Two choices were to be made: 1. To give Max up by letting him go or putting him to sleep 2. To try to rehabilitate him and risk more harm on ourselves. After much struggle, we chose the latter.

My dog, my dog, why did we not forsake him? I believe that it was because my family valued life and love, more than the money and effort we had to spend on an animal that we did not plan to have in the first place.

I would not label myself as an animal-lover. Besides my pets, the only animals I love are the ones served on my dining table. I do not think that animals, as argued by activists, have inalienable rights as humans do.

What I believe is this: Humans are created by God to be a higher form of being. The value of our lives are higher than those of other forms. (Hence I think animal-testing may be a necessary evil if used in medical science - although this is a different topic altogether.) At the same time, because of our higher status, humans have an ethical responsibility towards all other life - including those of animals.

We have no right to abuse or kill needlessly for vanity or convenience. These should be avoided at all possible costs, even of our own. When a person refuses to bear his ethical responsibilities, even the finest fur-coat or best animal-tested cosmetics would not be able to hide his ugliness.

Max is getting on his years now and he has become much milder and tamed since. A year ago, we even spent a mini-fortune for his eye-cataract operation. In return, he has given us much joy. The intelligent boy even plays "fetch", "tug-of-war" and even "hide-and-seek". Our choice not only gave him a life, but also brought life into our own.

My dog, my dog, I'm glad we did not forsake you!

The Puppy That Finally Found Home

I was told of a man, who exasperated by all the problems in his life and the woes around the world, finally asked God: why did He allow Eve to be tempted by the serpent in the Garden of Eden, which led to the opening of the Pandora's box.


A few days later, the man's neighbour gave him a puppy. However, as the puppy had already stayed with the neighbour for several days, it naturally regarded the neighbour's place as "home".


Hence despite having new owners, in the days that followed the puppy would still instinctively run to "home" next door whenever the gate was open. Each time this happened, the man would
patiently go over to his neighbour's to bring back his new pet.


This happened for several weeks. Until finally one day, the gate was accidentally left open. But much to the pleasant surprise of the man, the puppy did not run out of the house. In was this moment, when the man realised his puppy had found where was home. Although the man had owned his dog for a while already, it was only now that it truly belonged to him.


This was God's real life answer to the man's question. God had intentionally allowed the gates of His house to be open, even though He knew that we'd, like the puppy, run away to another "home" which was not ours. His purpose was not to tempt or harm us, but that we might learn with heartfelt conviction of who our Master is.


That will be when we finally find home.

SEVEN DAYS, NO EIGHT (part two)

The pressing question at hand is this: Did God foresee the impending Fall of Man before He chose to rest from all His work?

If no, then God is not all-knowing, omnipotent, omnipresent etc. If this is true, the whole account of creation by an almighty God cannot be, but a load of rubbish.

If yes, why did He allow it to happen and after it did, choose not to take any urgent damage control measures? Surely this cannot be the attitude of an all-loving responsible God?

Either way, the conclusion draws pretty close that God is perhaps not God after all. The teaching from many churches seem to imply that the first coming of Jesus is no more than a desperate "Plan B" to savage a situation gone totally awry. Could God possibly still be in the state of rest during the crucifixion of Jesus? (After all, there was no mention of God arousing from His breather after the seventh day.) Hardly gives one the confidence that God is truly sovereign.

Unless, our common interpretation of events is misguided.

By definition and understanding, everything can only happen in accordance to the will of a sovereign Being. Along this line, the Fall of Man and all our troubles must be part of our Sovereign’s plans, and not events gone horribly wrong.

Genesis 1 records: “And the evening and the morning were the first day… And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” In Middle-East tradition, a new day begins after sunset, not sunrise.

However, it is not written of “And the evening and the morning were the seventh day.” And of course, no eighth day as well. There is no need for an 8th day because God had completed His ALL His work and so He rested. The first parts of Genesis contain not just the opening timeline of the created universe, but it’s ending as well. The entire story of Creation falls completely within the seven days.

In other words, we, the creation, are living within the sixth day. The creation process, (including all the moulding, pruning, refining etc) is still in progress.

When Jesus died on the cross, he said "It is finished". Yes, God has finished all His work and entered into His seventh Sabbath day of rest. He is waiting for us, His creation, to join Him.

Hebrews 4: 1-11 says: - A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God

Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.

Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, "So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.' "

And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work." And again in the passage above he says, "They shall never enter my rest." It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience.

Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts."

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

REST means for us to rely totally on Him, in a love relationship, for everything. When creation learns to look beyond our problems and unto Him, when we surrender our right to judge good from evil according to our own knowledge (the original sin), then will creation be reconciled with our Creator. Till this happens, the whole purpose of creation is not fulfilled. The work will be incomplete.

Revelation 22:5 writes:

"There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever."

This describes of the seventh day - God’s day of rest. At the end, creation has returned to God's embraced and entered into His Sabbath Rest. There’ll be no need for another new day.

Yes, Genesis and Revelation are intimately linked! This is crucial to our faith in God because it assures us that at no point from Alpha to Omega, from the Beginning till the End, is our God not in sovereign control.

SEVEN DAYS. NO EIGHTH

Day by day, God created the universe. For six days.

"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.....

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day."
- Genesis 1:5 - 31

By the sixth day, all work was done and God rested on the seventh day:

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made."
- Genesis 2:1 - 3

Seven days. No more, no less. No mention of an Eighth Day anywhere else after these first two chapters in the rest of the Bible.

More amazingly, it is written that on the seventh day God "rested from all his work", especially considering the accounts to follow would to narrate the whole chain of disastrous events leading from the Fall of Mankind, the sacrifice of Jesus, till the End of Time.

An utterly strange choice of activity (or rather, inactivity) from a Being who is supposed to know all things before they even unfold.

Only seven days for creation. No eighth.