The four Yaps at CNY this year!
#chinese new year
3 months ago
#chinese new year
This year’s CNY was quick and fast-moving. Following the Christmas celebrations that seem like they were yesterday, this year’s CNY came on fast and furious. The tinsel and colorful trees quickly gave way to festive wire dragons and gordy decorations- decorations that were soothingly trite and tacky-familiar at the same time. With a flash of bright red firecrackers, angpaos, Mandarin oranges, and lion dancers, Chinese New Year was upon us.
This year’s celebrations were a bit different for us though, mostly because Mom was ill, and that gave cause for us to shorten our regular tour of houses and visitation stops. Chuxi was celebrated at home in the newly decorated house - without at doubt, the highlight of the new year - in comfortable airconditioned surroundings, our new living room was the site of feasting and more feasting, which quickly descended into a nostalgic viewing of now-ancient Mediacorp/TCS/SBC serial theme-songs on the fancy Mac-TV set up. Some of the major highlights included resurrecting ‘Zui hou yi ge da xia’, ‘Xuang tian zhi jun’, ‘Zhai zhan feng shen bang’ and ‘He xiao jiu tian’ which really marked my childhood.
The first and second days saw most of the usual stops - paternal grandfather’s home, maternal grandmother’s home, the Lows, the military Nav aunties and uncles coming over for the trinity of yusheng, kongbapau and chicken curry with baguettes- Asian food at its best. We devastated the goodies at the Low house, where 8 different types of pineapple tarts made an appearance, in addition to the much-craved he bi hiam and peanut cookie things. We skipped two stops this year due to our own low energy levels (age at work) - the elderly ex-neighbors and our maternal grand-uncle’s place/second cousins’ place.
What is the upshot of this long and tedious recollection? Here are some more reflective thoughts:
Well for starters, watching my grandfather (and really, everyone) struggle with my bedridden grandmother and how to respond to her, I’m reminded of how fragile human beings are. We try so hard to appear normal, unaffected, distant, and impervious, and some of us do a really good job of it. It was difficult to watch my grandfather struggle with a combination of neediness, guilt and just old-age, and even harder to watch my grandmother tear and respond - even though she can’t physically respond, mostly - to my dad praying. Her face flushed and tears came to her eyes - she was clearly praying. After we all said ‘Amen’, her eyes shut tightly and refused to open. Was she still praying on when we all stopped? What was going through her mind? I guess only grandmother and the Lord know what happened in that moment. But regardless, I’m reminded that it is Almighty God who watches over our family, and enables us to know Him by name, and call on Him despite all of the messiness of life. And in those moments, whether in guilt, or in faith, or weakness or intercession, we come through the blood of Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest. Because we know the Savior, the different members of our family have a hope that God’s wrath is not upon us for our many many sins. Rather, we know that God put all His judgment and fury against our evil into the body and soul of Jesus Christ, so that we might come before Him in right standing with Him, unharmed and unafraid. Do we deserve this? No, we don’t. Do we always live in the light of the truth of this good news? No we don’t. Do we live as heirs of His promise? No, we don’t. But the gospel has come to our home, and opens our lives to hope and healing, peace and prosperity, redemption and reconciliation, grace and graciousness, justice and joy. And like the Israelites in the Passover, we have the blood of a precious lamb upon our doorpost, and God recognizes us as His own.
These truths apply to all who trust in the promise of God called the gospel, not just for our past sins, or our future security, but for our present needs. We desperately need the gospel. We need to remember who we are in Christ, that our interactions may change, that our words will be softer, that our hearts will be meeker, that our minds will be renewed, that our desires will be transformed, and so much more than these. We need the gospel privately and corporately, spiritually and socially, practically and devotionally. We need to go deeper in understanding how the Cross transforms our self-worth, our self-identity, releases us from past sins and old hang-ups, tears down the wall of hostility between us, assures of a future inheritance worth more than anything the world can offer, and promises us the power of the Holy Spirit to bring about life out of death. At Chinese New Year, we do so well with keeping up appearances and routines- like good Chinese people do. True to form as a honor-culture, we value appearances and form, and we, like all people, love to put our best foot forward, and hide our dirty linen at home. This is what Chinese people do. But we need to showcase the gospel, which means we must decrease and Jesus Christ must increase. We have family members and friends who do not yet know Jesus, and we have more who do not know the power of Jesus to affect their lives presently through the sanctifying work of the Spirit. We still need the gospel, every hour and every moment of every day. In celebration and rejoicing, we need the gospel to humble us and redirect our joy to the Savior’s goodness and generosity. In suffering and hardship, we need the gospel to point us to hope and truth that is more real than circumstantial difficulty. In awkwardness and confusion, we need the gospel to secure our wisdom in Christ, and offer us the great resources of the Spirit of comfort. We need the gospel, and desperately so.
As we heard last Sunday, we should pray in line with Eph 1, as Paul prays for the Ephesian church. I pray that our family will grow in a spirit of enlightenment and understanding, especially in the knowledge of Him- namely, Christ. I pray that we will all thirst to know Jesus truly, not just as the Giver of good gifts, the Sustainer of our hopes, the Prince of Peace, our Rock and High Tower, but also, our Savior, our Messiah, our Righteousness. I pray that we will know Him as our Wisdom, our Sanctification, our Justification and our Glorification. I pray that we will know Him as our Elder Brother, our Passover Lamb, our Great High Priest, God’s Prophet, our Interceding Advocate, our Conquering King, our Master and Teacher, the Only Word of God. I pray that we will know the power of God, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and enthroned Him as the Great King over all things, the same power that appointed Him the Son of God in might, the same power that conquered sin and death and all evil, that we might be like Him, worthy sons of the Most High. I pray that materially, God will provide; that relationally, God will provide; that emotionally, God will provide; most of all, I pray that our spiritual thirsts will all be met in Jesus Christ.
This is the year of the dragon - a very auspicious symbol in the Chinese imagination. But for all of the longevity, prosperity, and festive celebration that the Dragon Year promises, there is one who rises above the dragon in the Bible as the conquering King, and of the increase of His government there will be no end. In the rule of Christ, prosperity will truly abound and peace will reign supreme, there will be no lack, and all will receive blessing and favor through Christ Jesus. Suffering, tears and mourning will cease, and joy will be the prime experience in that promised Paradise. More than the year of the dragon, this is the day that the Lord has made - I will rejoice and be glad in it!
@4 months ago with 3 notesThis year’s CNY was quick and fast-moving. Following the Christmas celebrations that seem like they were yesterday, this year’s CNY came on fast and furious. The tinsel and colorful trees quickly gave way to festive wire dragons and gordy decorations- decorations that were soothingly trite and tacky-familiar at the same time. With a flash of bright red firecrackers, angpaos, Mandarin oranges, and lion dancers, Chinese New Year was upon us.
This year’s celebrations were a bit different for us though, mostly because Mom was ill, and that gave cause for us to shorten our regular tour of houses and visitation stops. Chuxi was celebrated at home in the newly decorated house - without at doubt, the highlight of the new year - in comfortable airconditioned surroundings, our new living room was the site of feasting and more feasting, which quickly descended into a nostalgic viewing of now-ancient Mediacorp/TCS/SBC serial theme-songs on the fancy Mac-TV set up. Some of the major highlights included resurrecting ‘Zui hou yi ge da xia’, ‘Xuang tian zhi jun’, ‘Zhai zhan feng shen bang’ and ‘He xiao jiu tian’ which really marked my childhood.
The first and second days saw most of the usual stops - paternal grandfather’s home, maternal grandmother’s home, the Lows, the military Nav aunties and uncles coming over for the trinity of yusheng, kongbapau and chicken curry with baguettes- Asian food at its best. We devastated the goodies at the Low house, where 8 different types of pineapple tarts made an appearance, in addition to the much-craved he bi hiam and peanut cookie things. We skipped two stops this year due to our own low energy levels (age at work) - the elderly ex-neighbors and our maternal grand-uncle’s place/second cousins’ place.
What is the upshot of this long and tedious recollection? Here are some more reflective thoughts:
Well for starters, watching my grandfather (and really, everyone) struggle with my bedridden grandmother and how to respond to her, I’m reminded of how fragile human beings are. We try so hard to appear normal, unaffected, distant, and impervious, and some of us do a really good job of it. It was difficult to watch my grandfather struggle with a combination of neediness, guilt and just old-age, and even harder to watch my grandmother tear and respond - even though she can’t physically respond, mostly - to my dad praying. Her face flushed and tears came to her eyes - she was clearly praying. After we all said ‘Amen’, her eyes shut tightly and refused to open. Was she still praying on when we all stopped? What was going through her mind? I guess only grandmother and the Lord know what happened in that moment. But regardless, I’m reminded that it is Almighty God who watches over our family, and enables us to know Him by name, and call on Him despite all of the messiness of life. And in those moments, whether in guilt, or in faith, or weakness or intercession, we come through the blood of Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest. Because we know the Savior, the different members of our family have a hope that God’s wrath is not upon us for our many many sins. Rather, we know that God put all His judgment and fury against our evil into the body and soul of Jesus Christ, so that we might come before Him in right standing with Him, unharmed and unafraid. Do we deserve this? No, we don’t. Do we always live in the light of the truth of this good news? No we don’t. Do we live as heirs of His promise? No, we don’t. But the gospel has come to our home, and opens our lives to hope and healing, peace and prosperity, redemption and reconciliation, grace and graciousness, justice and joy. And like the Israelites in the Passover, we have the blood of a precious lamb upon our doorpost, and God recognizes us as His own.
These truths apply to all who trust in the promise of God called the gospel, not just for our past sins, or our future security, but for our present needs. We desperately need the gospel. We need to remember who we are in Christ, that our interactions may change, that our words will be softer, that our hearts will be meeker, that our minds will be renewed, that our desires will be transformed, and so much more than these. We need the gospel privately and corporately, spiritually and socially, practically and devotionally. We need to go deeper in understanding how the Cross transforms our self-worth, our self-identity, releases us from past sins and old hang-ups, tears down the wall of hostility between us, assures of a future inheritance worth more than anything the world can offer, and promises us the power of the Holy Spirit to bring about life out of death. At Chinese New Year, we do so well with keeping up appearances and routines- like good Chinese people do. True to form as a honor-culture, we value appearances and form, and we, like all people, love to put our best foot forward, and hide our dirty linen at home. This is what Chinese people do. But we need to showcase the gospel, which means we must decrease and Jesus Christ must increase. We have family members and friends who do not yet know Jesus, and we have more who do not know the power of Jesus to affect their lives presently through the sanctifying work of the Spirit. We still need the gospel, every hour and every moment of every day. In celebration and rejoicing, we need the gospel to humble us and redirect our joy to the Savior’s goodness and generosity. In suffering and hardship, we need the gospel to point us to hope and truth that is more real than circumstantial difficulty. In awkwardness and confusion, we need the gospel to secure our wisdom in Christ, and offer us the great resources of the Spirit of comfort. We need the gospel, and desperately so.
As we heard last Sunday, we should pray in line with Eph 1, as Paul prays for the Ephesian church. I pray that our family will grow in a spirit of enlightenment and understanding, especially in the knowledge of Him- namely, Christ. I pray that we will all thirst to know Jesus truly, not just as the Giver of good gifts, the Sustainer of our hopes, the Prince of Peace, our Rock and High Tower, but also, our Savior, our Messiah, our Righteousness. I pray that we will know Him as our Wisdom, our Sanctification, our Justification and our Glorification. I pray that we will know Him as our Elder Brother, our Passover Lamb, our Great High Priest, God’s Prophet, our Interceding Advocate, our Conquering King, our Master and Teacher, the Only Word of God. I pray that we will know the power of God, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and enthroned Him as the Great King over all things, the same power that appointed Him the Son of God in might, the same power that conquered sin and death and all evil, that we might be like Him, worthy sons of the Most High. I pray that materially, God will provide; that relationally, God will provide; that emotionally, God will provide; most of all, I pray that our spiritual thirsts will all be met in Jesus Christ.
This is the year of the dragon - a very auspicious symbol in the Chinese imagination. But for all of the longevity, prosperity, and festive celebration that the Dragon Year promises, there is one who rises above the dragon in the Bible as the conquering King, and of the increase of His government there will be no end. In the rule of Christ, prosperity will truly abound and peace will reign supreme, there will be no lack, and all will receive blessing and favor through Christ Jesus. Suffering, tears and mourning will cease, and joy will be the prime experience in that promised Paradise. More than the year of the dragon, this is the day that the Lord has made - I will rejoice and be glad in it!
