Last Saturday was a memorable day for me. I had arrived with my family at the Hokkien cemetery in Sungei Jelok in Kajang in the early afternoon to clean up my late father's grave and to reflect briefly on his days together with us before he had left us after a long illness in 1995.
As we were walking down a gentle hill-slope to return to our car, we met a group of three children who had just arrived at the cemetery. If I remember correctly they were a sister with her two brothers, and they all appeared to be of about primary school age. They were talking happily to one another as they ran towards one of the newer graves in front of us.
Following behind them, a short distance away was a gentleman who called out loudly to them in Chinese, "Over here! This is your mummy's grave. This is where your mummy is buried. Next year ask your papa to bring you here again, understand?" And the children nodded quietly to this man, whom I presume by then was their uncle.
The kids had come to their mummy's grave empty-handed. They stood close to each other, looking somewhat awkwardly after hearing what their "uncle" had told them. Their happy chatter had stopped suddenly and there appeared to be a tinge of sadness and longing on their faces for their mummy.
I was saddened by the scene.
As we continued to walk down-slope to our car, I turned to my wife ChooyLin and remarked, "Poor children! They are so young and they've lost their mother already. . ." I couldn't understand why their father was not with them that afternoon, and why they had to be brought there by an uncle, if indeed the gentleman was their uncle. I only wished somebody could bring their mummy back.
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That evening ChooyLin and I attended the 36th Anniversary Dinner of IKUPM at a restaurant in the Mines Shopping Fair. It was a pleasant evening, filled with the joy of meeting with brothers and sisters who studied and fellowshipped together with us back in the 1980s in the CF. The current batch of students were also warm and friendly. At our table was Grace, LiNa, Gloria, Sheryl, Eugene, Au Yong Chee Meng and also Colin (who later went over to a nearby table).
We chatted happily together, and soon the sadness of seeing those three empty-handed children at their mother's grave began to fade from our thoughts.
All the more so, when a very interesting, meaningful and entertaining sketch was performed by three very talented young people on stage by BiYao @ Gobby depicting a young graduate who was being severely tempted by a seductive looking Devil played by BeeKoon as he stepped into the working world, while a serious sounding Angel played by Ivan Lee tried repeatedly to urge him to turn to God. Eventually, after falling badly, this young man decided to pick himself up and return to God - to the joy of the Angel and the dismay of the Devil.
I enjoyed the sketch very much and I must congratulate Gobby, Ivan and Bee Koon for their excellent acting on stage. By then I had all but forgotten about the sad scene of the motherless children at the Kajang cemetery, when quite unexpectedly I came across a passage of scripture printed in the programme booklet. It was the passage from John 15:1 - 17 taken from the Contemporary English Version, which I'd like to quote below:
"Jesus said to his disciples:
I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts away every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit. But he trims clean every branch that does produce fruit, so that it will produce even more fruit. You are already clean because of what I have said to you.
Stay joined to me, and I will stay joined to you. Just as a branch cannot produce fruit unless it stays joined to the vine, you cannot produce fruit unless you stay joined to me. I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit. But you cannot do anything without me. If you don't stay joined to me, you will be thrown away. You will be like dry branches that are gathered up and burned in a fire.
Stay joined to me and let my teachings become part of you. Then you can pray for whatever you want, and your prayer will be answered. When you become fruitful disciples of mine, my Father will be honored. I have loved you, just as my Father has loved me. So remain faithful to my love for you. If you obey me, I will keep loving you, just as my Father keeps loving me, because I have obeyed him.
I have told you this to make you as completely happy as I am. Now I tell you to love each other, as I have loved you. The greatest way to show love for friends is to die for them. And you are my friends, if you obey me. Servants don't know what their master is doing, and so I don't speak to you as my servants. I speak to you as my friends, and I have told you everything that my Father has told me.
You did not choose me. I chose you and sent you out to produce fruit, the kind of fruit that will last. Then my Father will give you whatever you ask for in my name. So I command you to love each other. "
I have read this passage many times before but that evening I noticed, for the first time, that in the midst of our Lord Jesus' commands to his disciples to abide in him and to obey him, there were at least three references to the Father. Once at the beginning, several times in the middle and once more at the end of the passage.
At the beginning of the passage, I read that our heavenly Father is our Gardener. God is our Father who cuts away fruitless branches from the vine and trims the fruitful ones so that the fruitful disciples will bear even more fruit. Every Christian who abides in the commands of our Lord Jesus remains as part of this vine in this garden.
And those of us who bear fruits in Christ will be pruned, trimmed and tended to by our Father in heaven, so that we will bear even more fruits. However, we must beware of the pitfall of living fruitless lives should we depart from obeying Christ in our lives - our Father will cut such people away from his kingdom!
Then about halfway through the passage, I realised that our heavenly Father is our Guide. The Lord Jesus told his disciples that their fruitfulness in life was to glorify his Father (rather than to glorify Jesus himself). He went on to tell them twice that he his love for the disciples was guided by his Father's love: first by saying that he loved them just as his Father has loved him, and again by saying that he would keep loving them if they obeyed him just as his Father keeps loving him because he had obeyed his Father.
Indeed, it is clear that our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the only begotten Son of God looked to his Father in heaven as his guide in his love for his disciples and in his obedience to his Father. This is the same God who is our heavenly Father today, who is our guide as we obey the commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And finally, at the end of the passage, I saw that our Father in heaven is our Giver. The Lord Jesus told his disciples that he had chosen them and had sent them out to produce fruit in life that will endure. And then his Father will give them whatever they ask for in Jesus' name. This is the joy that all who follow and obey the Lord Jesus Christ can have everyday of their lives: the joy of being chosen, of being sent out to live fruitful lives and the joy of receiving from our heavenly Father whatever we ask in the name of Christ.
Suddenly it occurred to me that those three poor little motherless children whom I encountered at the Kajang cemetery could still have hope and joy in life. Although they can't have their mother back in this world, someone can tell them that there is an everlasting Father in heaven.
There is a Father for these little children to turn to the rest of their lives. They can turn to God always as their Father!
Sitting there at the dinner table, looking at this passage in the programme book, I was strongly convicted that we Christians must live our lives by continually turning to our Father in heaven to be our Gardener, our Guide and our Giver. A Gardener who tends our lives to become more fruitful. A Guide for our love towards others and for our obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And a Giver for all that we ask in Jesus' name, in obedience to Christ.
Now my sadness for those motherless children at the cemetery is accompanied by another sadness. It is the sadness of knowing that there are many Fatherless Christians around me. Christians who profess and confess the name of Christ, but who do not turn to God: the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Dear Christian, I urge you to return to our Father in heaven in your life. In your prayers, ask good things from our Father. In your obedience to the Lord Jesus, glorify the Father. In your love for others, follow the Father's love just as our Lord Jesus had done so in obedience to his Father.
Let us beware, that we do not become Fatherless Christians.
