God’s Life Finds A Way

Along the side of the pavement at Chinese Garden MRT I saw this slope of tiles leading to the grated drain. Along its joints and grout I saw fine and green grasses sprouting out towards the sky. It caught my attention for a while and I stood there to wonder what the Lord has for me there. Nothing came to mind. I then took a picture of it with the intention of going back to ponder over it. God speaks to us through so many ways and one of them is through what we see.

A week or two later, I looked at the image as I would look at a text, and let myself be drawn to a particular aspect of it, allowing what resonated to speak to me its message. I looked at different parts of the picture slowly and found myself drawn to the green, light grasses sprouting from the tightest of spaces. I thought about how God’s grace and life are somehow able to find a way to express itself through my life in spite of all my weakness and imperfections, and my inattentiveness to him. God’s life finds a way somehow. And I am most grateful for such expressions of his life through mine.

I was such a shy, reserved and insecure teenager when the Lord rescued me. He put his life in me when I repented and believed in Jesus Christ. How that seed, that life found a way to express itself through me in the tightest of spaces is amazing. I cannot even speak and am socially awkward and yet I was slowly transformed into a speaker, a teacher of God’s ways, able to share his word with audiences big or small. He has also transformed me and made me more socially confident and able to easily relate to and befriend others. 

God’s life always finds a way – even with the imperfect, limited material he has to work with. God’s life in us finds a way to express itself through us. Even if the space is tight and limited and not ideal. We saints are cracked pottery and have lots of imperfections. We are also ordinary clay jars not expensive rare ceramic or jade. However, we hold or contain a priceless amazing treasure, the Spirit of Jesus, a gift from the Father above (2 Cor 4:7). He is God’s seed, life, power and presence in us. He works in us to refine and fill our character with more of Christ. He empowers us with spiritual gifts and enablements that enhances what we already possess by nature or nurture, or where none was present at all. These graces and gifts are the expressions of his life through our ordinary life. It is expressed through us for God’s glory and for the benefit and blessing of others with whom we share these gifts and graces. We certainly ought to thank God for these expressions of life, however little or flimsy they may seem. Stop berating ourself but learn to give glory to God for all the little steps forward and the progress made thus far. Then we shall see even more of his life expressed through us.

How has God’s life found expressions in your life? Feel free to give glory to God by sharing with us in the comment box. 

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Oh To Be Like A Dove

With ease the dove nestles in the gap that she calls home. Home is simple, bare yet solid. Sometimes the rain flushes the floor clean. However, life has its headaches. The jarring screech that vibrates the home throughout the day ceases only after midnight, and then restarts at dawn. She gets used to it. Not her ideal home but it will have to do. She feels content with her current life circumstances.

Here she finds rest and safety. 

She enjoys unblocked views of the Chinese Gardens. On Sundays, she loves watching the foreign workers playing a game of cricket in the vast green before her.

Though she lives from beak to stomach there is no lack.

Anytime, she is free to take flight into God’s vast world and feel the joy of fulfilling all that God has designed her to be and to do. She feels close to God when she uses all the gifts that God has given her: feathers and wings, lightness of body, natural navigation system, sight, and sensitivity to airflow and predators.

God has graced her with peace, goodness and abundance. 

Like the dove, I am thankful that God has put me in a place of grace and peace, of freedom and sweetness, of contentment and fulfilment. The Lord is more than enough. The vista ahead is exciting. The simple life is simply life-giving and life-freeing.

“Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me. I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove I would fly away and be at rest. I would flee far away and stay in the desert; I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm” (Psalm 45:5-8).

“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you have died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:2,3).

Selah.

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Child’s Play

This picture caught my attention more than others I took that day. Sometimes I intuitively sense that the photo has more than lines, light and shadows. It is more than just an interesting composition. It is worth going back to it, gaze at it in stillness and silence, and let the Spirit blow as he wills. 

I find myself going back to my childhood. I do not remember either of my parents playing with me. I remember playing with my younger sister but not my older brothers. I felt forlorn. Maybe they did play with me but I could not remember. How could I not remember when I remember playing with my sister? Were they too busy? – he with work and her with raising five children. I wonder if this left an unfilled hole in my soul. 

BEING LOVED WITHOUT KNOWING

I suddenly realise Christ, the Eternal One, was present to me in my childhood. He loved me even though I did not know him. I find myself comforted, like he was saying to me, “I was there with you, playing, accompanying you, when you were a child. I delighted in you.” The thought of this was so delicious, I felt comforted and blessed, and welcomed his love, there and then in front of the photo on my iPad. “Lord, thank you for being with me all along. I do not need to feel deprived of parental love. You loved me. Thank you, Lord, for this sense of peace and comfort.”

I thank God that by his grace when I became a parent I played with my kids – enjoying their company, the smiles, the cycling, card games, street soccer in void decks and basketball. Now that I think of it, I left them pleasant memories of play. Lord, thank you .

Too many parents have lost the joy of play. They love challenging their children to do better at school and fill their schedules with tuition and enrichment classes. Why not play with your children? Besides sports and outdoor stuff, there are lots of board games. Play is play when there is no utilitarian purpose achieved, besides fun and enjoyment. If there are benefits, they are a bonus. If none at all, play anyway.

PLAY BECOMING ENDEMIC DURING THE PANDEMIC

A child jumps around the hall and makes monkey noises. There is no purpose at all besides sheer fun. No noble end achieved. It is pure play. We adults have lost that and need to rediscover it with our kids. And for ourselves too. Many people have observed that the pandemic has prodded, even driven adults to rediscover and reclaim play. From gardening to board-games, from cycling to cooking, from hiking to painting and drawing, adults are returning to reclaiming the art of play.

Play is becoming endemic during the pandemic.

Some good is coming out of bad. I am glad this is happening. Satan is not. God is.

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