This World Is Not My Home

My 姑婆 passed away last month, aged 93, having been bed-ridden for the last three decades. Yes, thirty long years of disability, during which one of her 7 daughters faithfully took care of her.

I was awed by the 陪葬品 prepared for my great-aunt's funeral - heaps and heaps of 金纸,银纸 in big black garbage bags, a multi-storied paper house, a car, ...... and a pair of paper 金童玉女. "She asked for servants to be burned and sent to her. She had chabokan (servant girls) to serve her when she was young, you know," her daughter told us during the funeral wake. My great-aunt had bound feet and lived a pampered life in her younger days.

Would my deceased great-aunt receive all the goodies that she deemed necessary for an afterlife of ease and comfort? From my Christian perspective, I think not; whatever is burned would just be carbonised - ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

"Do not be overawed when a man grows rich, when the splendor of his house increases; for he will take nothing with him when he dies, his splendor will not descend with him. " (Psalm 49:16-17)

At one time, my late mother told us that she would go and squat at the 五脚基 (veranda) of my deceased father's house in 阴间. My father had passed away earlier and sent off under Taoist funeral rites.

By God's grace, my mom became a Christian before she died. As she laid on her deathbed, I assured her that Jesus Christ had already prepared a big house for her in heaven and we, her children, would join her there. She only needed to keep the house spick and span and wait for us there.

"In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:2-3)

We are aliens in this world (Leviticus 25:23, 1 Chronicles 29:15). Our eternal home is in heaven with Jesus and He has promised to come and take us to be with Him. What greater promise is there?

Not By Bread Alone

I borrowed 20 bread-making cookbooks from the Bishan Library in the last one over week. One cookbook says, "Place the dough in a container, except metal, to rise." Why not metal container, I wondered? I found the answer in another cookbook - metal container may impart metallic taste to the dough and conduct heat which hasten the dough to rise too quickly. Oh, ok, I'll use ceramic container then .....

My sis can't understand why I have to read so many of the cookbooks. While I've already learned from a baking demonstration class to bake a fairly decent white bread , the bookish me find the cookbooks very interesting in providing detailed explanations not only of the what and how, but also the why and when of bread-making.

And so as I enjoy the heavenly aroma and taste of freshly baked home-made bread, I savour the ingestion of information nuggets in the cookbooks. Food for the stomach and food for the brain.

What about food for the soul? Scripture says, "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Deueronomy 8:3, Matthew 4:4) The psalmist says, "But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers." (Psalam 1:2-3)

I think at some point in time, food for the soul becomes more important than food for the body (or brain). As we grow older and our material needs have been satisfied, life may feel empty and needing something beyond the material. Recently, when I asked my bro-in-law about his religious life, he said his belief in God is "a matter of timing". He agreed with me that belief in God is a 精神寄托 (which I roughly translate as spiritual commitment).

The Life Application Bible says:
Many people think that life is based on satisfying their appetites. If they can earn enough money to dress, eat, and play in high style, they think they are living 'the good life'. But such things do not satisfy our deepest longings. In the end they leave us empty and dissatisfied. Real life, according to Moses, comes from total commitment to God, the one who created life itself. It requires discipline, sacrifice, and hard work, and that's why most people never find it.

It has taken me a long while to find the real bread of life and the true living waters - Jesus Christ. "Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him." (Psalm 34:8) I've tasted His goodness. Have you?