Happy Happy Chinese New
Year!
I really like CNY, for
reasons I can’t quite explain. The food (so fattening, so sweet, so much
peanuts, so heaty), the decorations (I don’t actually like red, so tacky, some
so gaudy, chim Chinese phrases I hardly understand), the visiting (I end up
stoning at most houses, eating way too much, having to humour people and be
excessively polite, the family feuds, squabbles)…
Of course, the
bracketed stuff are the reasons to dislike CNY, for which, to me are the worst
case scenarios already. CNY is always better than all that right?
Look beyond the façade of
the festival, and you will learn many things. There are many stories to hear,
stories of your past, your parents’ past, the hardships the older generation
has persevered through to land you here today. There are stories of faith and
redemption, how the Lord sustains through sickness and pain. There are stories
of a rocky path, debts and dishonesty. Yet all these people are still here today,
strong enough to tell their story, cheerful enough to share this celebration,
generous enough to spare so much of the little they have, hospitable enough to
host and entertain us.
It seems weird, but
when I grow up, if my siblings and I all move out (assuming we get married and
stuff.) will I visit them? I hardly even talk to them now, so if I visit them,
what are we going to talk about? What will I have to give them?
On a brighter note, I
wore a dress for the first time in a while to church this morning, and I dare admit
I attempted to take a selfie when I was home but… I really don’t look good in
selfies! The angle is just strange and unflattering.
The verses I remember
most from the sermon this morning:
“And let us consider how we may spur one another
on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but
encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
– Hebrews 10:24-25