A Father's Love

We cheerfully received Ah Ban's wedding dinner invitation card during the Chinese New Year. Nobody expected that one month later, we would be gathered on the event date to offer our condolences to Ah Ban because of the sudden death of his mother two days preceding his wedding ceremony.

Although the dinner was cancelled, many of us still went back to Batu Pahat to give him some moral supports. I went to the Funeral Home with Jack and Loke. Some of other friends were already there or came later. We occupied at least two tables.

One of them was Ah Mark. We were ex-classmates as early as at the age of five! I realized that only when we were in the same class again in the secondary school. I had recognized his face in an old picture of the graduation ceremony of the first of the two kindergartens that I had attended. It was later confirmed by him.

The last two years in the secondary school, our permanent seats in class were very close to each other. Thus, we had a lot of fun chatting and joking. After I had gone overseas for further studies, we did not keep in touch. Through other ex-classmates, I learnt that he was the first among us to get married. When I came back on holidays, he was not in the group of bachelor friends who would ask me out for a tea. Occasionally I still saw him with his buddies at the Mamak stalls near his house. Then we would have a very short conversation.

Since I had come back to Malaysia, I faithfully attend our Chinese New Year gatherings which usually include a lunch at the restaurant. Last year, the funniest characters of the class turned up to make the venue a theatre. Besides the special menu, beer was ordered to make the fellows high. Once the alchoohol had been poured out from the bottles to the stomach, those comedians talked even more nonsense. I found back Ah Mark of the secondary school!

This time, during Ah Ban's mother's wake service, everybody looked steady. When Ah Mark saw me, he moved to sit near me. His round face and childlike smile were by no means convincing proof of his status as a father of two.

At first, I asked about the family business he had been doing since years. He seemed to be physically and mentally tired of the routine but it was the way to sustain his comfortable life.

"If you're satisfied with a simple life, then you won't need much money. Health is more important. You see, once we die, we can't do anything with money anymore." I showed where Ah Ban's mother was lying.

"It's true."

"Don't worry about the future. God will provide, if you trust in Him."

"You're a Christian now?" When he heard the word "God", that was his reaction.

"I've been a Christian for years."

"Oh, I see. My two children have been attending children school run by a church. My son still worships our god at home whereas my daughter doesn't want to follow anymore. When I look at what they learn about the Christianity, the teachings are actually good..."

"I am not surprised at your daughter's behavior. Christianity is all about relationships. Just think of the cross: The vertical is our relationship with God while the horizontal is our relationship with man. If you are interested, I'm going to tell you what I've understood."

"Go ahead."

"God is our Father in Heaven. To maintain a relationship with Him, we need the communication. We speak to Him through our prayers and He speaks to us through the Bible. When you speak to your children, you want them to listen. Same goes to God. He also expects us to listen to Him by reading and obeying His Words. For example, you can ask your father for a lot of things and he will do for you. When he asks you to stop smoking, whether to listen or not is still up to you. But a good relationship requires the two-way communication. We need to listen and speak to each other... Are you following?"

"Yes, continue."

"In the Bible, Jesus tells us to love our neighbours like ourselves. But because we don't listen to Him, that's why there are wars and conflicts. Do you agree?"

"You're right."

"Regarding the worship of your god, the Bible tells us that there is only one God who created man in His image. So He doesn't want us to turn to other gods. That's the simple reason."

"Ok."

"If you read Genesis, the first book of the Bible, you'll learn about the creation of the world. Would you like to know the story?"

"Yes."

So, I summarized the first three chapters of Genesis, focusing on how Adam and Eve's disobedience had led to death. Then I gave a short account of Jesus' first coming to give eternal life and His second coming to judge the world.

"So you believe that Jesus will come again?"

"I personally take it seriously. If you don't believe it, it'll just sound like a fairy tale. All depends on here." I pointed at my head.

I also briefly explained the notion of the trinity, "There are three persons in one God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I don't know much about the Holy Spirit. My understanding is that if God were alone, He would not know what love is. Because He has a Son, relationship exists and that's why He can love us and expect us to do likewise. Now you've got your own children, it should be easy for you to understand, right?... Sorry, maybe I've talked too much..."

"No, no. It's OK."

"Ah Mark, I have to emphasize again that I can share with you much more of what I've learnt about Christianity, but whether you'll believe or not is still your free will."

I thank God for giving me the opportunity to tell the good news of eternal life at a place which was related to grief and death. I had never expected to discuss a serious topic like that with Ah Mark. Honestly, he was among the last persons in my list of ex-classmates to whom I would have thought of even mentioning the word "God".

Out of his fatherly love, Ah Mark wants the Christianity to influence his children for the better. How much more our Father God.