Hands of a Mother

My family just took a very enjoyable vacation to California. Along the way, we stopped at a beautiful, secluded beach. We played in the waves and enjoyed the view immensely, the sparkling waters and calm SoCal weather. 

Our bare feet were caked in mud and sand, so we stopped by the little water spouts next to the beach to wash off our feet. As I lifted one foot high to the fountain to wash it off, I teetered and tried to balance. Because I couldn’t reach my foot without losing balance, my mother, with utmost love and care, used her own hands to help me wash off my mud-caked foot under the water. Then she did the same for the other foot. She washed my feet gently and straightforwardly, making no fuss. Taking care of me, no matter for what or at what age, had become routine to her. 

I was suddenly overwhelmed by tender emotion. It brought to mind all the times Jesus in the Bible washed the feet of his friends- the most holy of men, God’s own son, our Savior, bringing Himself down in humble love to wash the feet of His friends. My mother’s hands had bathed me when I was an infant and raised me with loving care. The same hands had once scrubbed on floors with rags in a foreign country to support her family on a few marks, even sending back some hard-earned money to support her parents in China. Those same hands toiled endlessly to create the brightest future for her children, regardless of whatever cost it might have to her. My mother’s hands, I realized, were the most beautiful things I could think of. I had never stopped to think of how much she had sacrificed day by day to paint our happy lives. It was always, always children and husband first, her last, from the smallest of matters (saving the best morsels of each meal for us) to paying for my college tuition. I cried as I thanked the Lord for blessing me with such a truly beautiful mother. 

Reflections on the Moon

 

 

It’s such a mundane thing, to gaze at the moon, such a seemingly cliche action wrapped up in our busy daily lives with technology, social media, a blur of this and that all at once.

And I’ve absolutely been guilty of that. Just a few minutes ago, I was catching up with Facebook while simultaneously trying to finish a section of a composition and study some notes. Then I absently walked towards the kitchen in pursuit of a snack, when all of a sudden a stunning silver gleam caught my eye.

It occurred to me that I hadn’t actually taken the time to glance at the moon in weeks, maybe months. But something about tonight’s moon captivated me with its beauty. It was so bright, so beautiful, so shimmery in its pure white silver. It lit up the sky around it with its luminescence, and I couldn’t do anything but gaze in utter awe. To think this is what I’d been missing in the whirlwind of life…

It occurred me that this beautiful, ethereal sight seemed so, so far away… a shimmering orb that billions around the globe had looked at and wondered about so many times. I was just so amazed at the thought of people actually stepping afoot this beautiful place, something so solid and so real beneath their feet. It seemed so many millions of miles away, only existing in the fleeting dreams of us here on Earth… that thought I could barely comprehend. Watching the moon glow faintly, such a sense of divine peace washed over me. Here, again, was God’s beauty and God’s glory glimmering faintly in my heart- a subtle reminder that His beauty exists everywhere, through hard times and difficulties. Though passed by by millions, it still hopefully lit up the night sky with its simple yet mystical beauty. And that gave me a feeling of love and reverence that I’ve never treasured before.

 

Good Friday

 

Happy Good Friday everyone!!! Oh Lord, what a beautiful day it is. Today is the day that our Savior in heaven wore a crown of thorns and sacrificed his life to bear our sins and shame. Today is the day that Jesus Christ went gracefully, LOVINGLY to his death because He loved us just that much. 

I was reading an article the other day that described exactly the physical pain that Christ went through while dying on the cross… it was gruesome. It was literally the most painful death someone could die, stretched out over six hours. Coupled with the weight of the entire world’s sins on his shoulder… Jesus Christ our Savior loved us more than we could ever imagine. This is so powerful and so true. Here is the Christ that was perfect in every way, blessed by the Lord, the king of all kings- yet he was mocked and tortured upon His death. Remember that He IS God, and He could definitely have escaped or brought fire down upon the Earth if He wished. But He didn’t. He willingly gave up his own life for us, something we never deserved for a moment, to give us a chance to be with our God in heaven forever. Jesus is so great. He died for every single child of God… not only those who pretended they were holy but the homeless on the streets, the Romans that mocked him upon the Cross, all those who have no love and only hate, all those who are consumed by sin, He died for every single one of them in a gift of eternal grace.

 

What a powerful message… so let us praise and glorify His holy name forever. Lord, I love you and trust you more than anything. Come into our lives so that we can show the world Your grace. Amen.

 

On Faith (Redux)

Wow, the Lord is so great. His love is unwavering and so wonderful. 

I’ve found this especially true recently; as I became concerned with greed, materialism, religious hypocrisy and other sins, I felt myself becoming more and more distant from the Lord. In fighting what I thought were His battles, I started turning away from the things that He has taught us the most; the ability to love unconditionally, steadily, openly, through all things. Yet He gave me another chance, a chance out of a chance out of a chance, and let His gentle love wash over me and allowed me to praise His name even after all I’ve done. 

The truth is, Christianity is sometimes an uphill battle. Some people claim to have faith that comes so easily and so perfectly but for most people, it’s a messy process of doubt, sin, and then periods of praise and wonderful joy. But no matter what happens, the pain, the sorrows, we can’t ever measure up to the tremendous pain Christ suffered for us on His own cross, bearing all of humanity’s sins on His two shoulders. His gentle love is what keeps us going. He, wearing white robes, welcomes us, torn, battered and dirty with sin, into His open arms. He will always look for us, the one lost sheep, even though he has millions in his flock. And for this, I praise the Lord, I praise him each and every day. 

“Jesus, You Have Me Completely…”

The Lord is truly so good. Through daily struggles with faith, sometimes I’ll just see something that seems like the Lord is talking to me, and then I’ll experience his wonderful and gentle love all at once, again. Christianity is not always easy but the uphill battle is so, so worth it, and we always need to remember that. ❤ PRAISE THE LORD!!

On Faith

 

Sometimes in the whirlwind of life, it’s hard to remember that Jesus is the one and only savior. Media often portrays God as some harsh being who is looking only to punish where He can. Some atheists take every turn they can to shove reasons about why ‘religion’ is not valid down every Christian’s throat, and we’re forced to defend Christianity as some sort of mathematical concept instead of what it really is-  God’s overwhelming, unconditional love that can make us happy beyond anything else in life. 

But that’s not true. True Christianity breaks the bonds of what ties us to this earth. The moments that I’ve felt most connected to the Lord, my savior, is not always when I’m in a mega-church in front of a huge band praising God, but rather in the most personal, closed-off, and private moments. In those moments where I feel His presence, His love is overwhelming. It’s a gentle love, one that is real, one that doesn’t boast but instead fills my heart more than any material happiness. This is the love that makes me want to proclaim to the whole world that Jesus is king and savior.