The Ultimate Reunion

 It was a short trip, as my no. 2 couldn't get leave, since she had just started work, but it had to be undertaken. Because this was to be a really grand reunion of all 8 of us siblings together with our extended families, totaling 41 heads, counting all generations, with various parties returning to Alor Star from Singapore, KL, and Kelantan. Thankfully, it was a smooth and pretty fast journey as we hit the road on Sunday afternoon, the very eve of CNY 2016. Most people would have left earlier in view of the long weekend. I guess it's one of those unique M'sian quirks  - come a major festival, everybody, not just the ones celebrating it, will 'balik kampung' to family, leaving KL city in a frenzied mass exodus of cars piling up bumper-to-bumper on the highways.

I never used to go back to my birth-place up north until I was 40 years old. I never saw the need to reconnect with my brothers and sisters back then, for the simple reason I never grew up with them. Having been adopted as the youngest baby in a family of 6 and taken away by my uncle and aunt to be raised as their own child, I simply wasn't part of their world, and they weren't part of mine. My mother died after she gave birth to me. My father naturally couldn't cope with 5 very young children already on his hands. Giving me away was the obvious solution; after all, it wasn't to any stranger, but to close relatives who had no children of their own. My aunt apparently was the only one who could soothe my crying; heaven itself must be approving. So just like that, it was a done deal.

When I was first shown my adoption certificate and told I had another family somewhere else, my 8 year old mind shrugged it off as 'so what'. I grew up without any 'adopted child' syndrome of rejection for I understood the necessity of what the father I never knew had to do. I basked in the love of an ordinary couple who cared for me the best they knew how. Looking back I can only say God works all things out for good.  My adopted parents were not perfect, but which parent, for that matter which child, is? They weren't rich, but I made it through university on a foundation loan. If I had not been adopted, I would not have had a tertiary education. If I had not gone to university, I would never have been a lawyer, never met the man who ended up as my husband, raised a family or be what I am today. So what need do I have to go back to folks who are so far removed from my circle of life? None whatsoever. And that was why up to age 40, I never bothered to make that annual trip back to Alor Star for the traditional CNY family reunion dinner...

Until the year my husband passed on. It was during that crisis that God in His grace and mercy caught me and turned me around to face Him, for which I remain forever grateful. Call it guilt, awakening, whatever, but I just knew I had to go back, not so much for the celebration, but to do the right thing. Only when I mustered up the courage to say sorry to my sisters for all those years I had stayed away, and saw the look on their faces, did I truly understand the meaning of reconciliation. Only then did I appreciate why repentance and forgiveness is such a big deal to God.

Ever since then, for the past 15 years, I make it a point to go back as far as possible every year, despite the traffic jam and the inconveniences of putting up in people's houses. I drag my children back, even when they moan and groan about the 'boring-ness' of visiting relatives they don't know and can't even address properly, with whom they can't communicate because they don't speak the lingo, being the 'white bananas' that they are. I go back because I know there's so much more reconciliation that needs to happen. Year after year, I perceive the dysfunctional relationships within the families I share blood with. I go praying for the brief time that I am there, somehow God will bring peace between my siblings, husbands and wives, parents and children, who have so much unresolved hurt and anger buried inside, one against the other. Truth is aren't all families like that although we may differ in degree?

Finally, this year God answered, not just once, but twice over in just 3 days. My sisters were in 'cold war' mode, not a good start. Moreover, the grand reunion would not be complete without my 2nd brother, who for years had not spoken to anyone in the family except brother no.3 and I. The first miracle happened when I called my eldest sister and had to pass the the phone to sis no 2 to confirm dinner arrangements. The ice was broken, their war ended. The next happened when brother no 3 on his accord invited 'long-lost' bro no 2 to join the party, and he came, surprising everyone.

Once again I saw that look on my sisters' faces, as he wished them happy new year. To watch the elders of my generation chatting, smiling and laughing away is my reward. It's truly what a family reunion should be - it's never about the food or the merry-making; it's about taking that first step to make amends so that forgiveness can close the hidden wounds, no matter who or what caused them. It's about breaking down walls in human hearts, so that love can be built up again....not just once a year, but day after day after day....


15 years ago, when I didn't even know I was lost, God found me,brought me back to Himself
and made me a member of His family. As I joined in posing for the obligatory group photo, I know it's just the beginning of what God can and will do in answer to my prayers for them, as I stand on His own word, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household " (Acts 16:31).

If seeing my siblings reunited once again can stir my heart so much, no wonder Father God in heaven desires all to be saved and come home to Him. Man's reconciliation with man is great, but man reconciled to God must surely be the most beautiful, joyous and wondrous family reunion of all. In fact He's even prepared a fantastic feast for that ultimate day; tellingly He calls it a wedding supper - now that's 1 reunion I don't want to miss. 

"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." - 2 Cor 5:18-19

More pix here