Sometimes it’s just the little things that say, “We love you!”
A simple message of love…
Sometimes it’s just the little things that say, “We love you!”
Unspoken
This is a poem I wrote for Mum in 2003, when I was at university. People say, “You never know what you’ve got till it’s gone,” and I wanted Mum to know that I really appreciated all she was and all she did for us all, even though I couldn’t find the right words.
Mum talked to Dad before she died about what she wanted at her funeral, and she wanted me to read this poem. It will always be very special to me as an expression of our love for each other.
So much unspoken
So much to say
So many words
So much love
So much
UnspokenLove that never changes
Care that never ends
Life given unconditionally
Unselfishly in love
So much love
So much
UnspokenA lifetime is not enough to speak the words unspoken
Love knows no language but the heart
To say, ‘Thank you’ is too little
To leave it unsaid is not enoughI hope you know
I hope you understand
I hope you believe:I love you
Mother’s hand is waiting for yours to hold
Chinese people have a saying: “尊老爱幼,” which means, “Respect the old and cherish the young.” These traditional attitudes and priorities are part of the reason I really love Chinese culture, but many such ideas are being eroded in modern society, often by the influence of western culture.
The story below was in my reading textbook this week, and it really touched a nerve with me. I’ve included the whole story, and translated it into English as best as I’m able.
Continue reading “Mother’s hand is waiting for yours to hold”
Too far?
As I lay on the bench in the park just praying and listening to God today, I was thinking about the blog I wrote yesterday, about individualism in the West and how we make it a kind of god or idol. I was thinking about what it means to meet with God in prayer, in silence and solitude, about how important the individual is to God. And how amazingly revealing that is to us, that God loves each individual too. Maybe our sense of individualism in the West, in our religion as well as in our culture, has partly come from a good understanding of how God loves us. I think I’m reacting now to what I find distasteful in my own culture, but not really appreciating the richness of our spiritual heritage.
My song is love unknown
My Saviour’s love to me
Love to the loveless shown
That they might lovely be
O who am I
That for my sake
My Lord should take
Frail flesh and dieHe came from his blest throne
Salvation to bestow
But men made strange and none
The longed-for Christ would know
But O my Friend
My Friend indeed
Who at my need
His life did spendSometimes they strew his way
And his sweet praises sing
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King
Then “Crucify!”
Is all their breath
And for his death
They thirst and cryThey rise and needs will have
My dear Lord made away
A murderer they save
The Prince of Life they slay
Yet cheerful he
To suffering goes
That he his foes
From thence might freeIn life no house no home
My Lord on earth might have
In death no friendly tomb
But what a stranger gave
What may I say
Heaven was his home
But mine the tomb
Wherein he layHere might I stay and sing
No story so divine
Never was love dear King
Never was grief like thine
This is my friend
In whose sweet praise
I all my days
Could gladly spend
My Song Is Love Unknown
Samuel Crossman
CCLI Song Number 2399704
Public Domain
Do you love me?
After Jesus came back from the dead, he was walking on the beach with Peter, the leader of the apostles. Three times he asked Peter, “Do you love me?” Three times Peter said that he did. And three time Jesus commanded Peter, “Feed my sheep.”
Jesus is the Good Shepherd and his sheep are all the people in the world that belong to Jesus – the Christians and the not-yet Christians. If we love Jesus, we will be caring for these people. Sometimes I caught up in my own world too much and forget to care for others. This passage is a challenge to rediscover my live for Jesus in caring for his family, his flock.
Fatherhood
So it’s just over a month to go. How scary is that? I’m going to be responsible for a little human being! You’d think there’d be laws against it…
Farrah and I are really excited about meeting him, but with a healthy dose of terrified! It’s like nothing we’ve ever done before, and it’s starting to feel closer to reality than a dream. Continue reading “Fatherhood”