THE BEST OF CHINESE NEW YEAR 2024

Whilst most Chinese would be sitting down to a hearty meal with family gathered around the table, it was just me and my one and only son eating left-overs on the eve of Chinese New Year 2024. I didn't even bother to cook rice, since he didn't want any. Straight after that, he was off to gym. Well, at least he stayed long enough to help wash up the dishes first; for which I am thankful. Even Maffin our cat has disappeared. So what's there left for an "old aunty" to do? Go to bed early of coz (and be woken up by loud fire-crackers at midnite.) 

Actually we had had our reunion dinner earlier - the night before the eve, as No 2 daughter was flying off overseas to join her husband for close to 3 weeks. This year we didn't join the typical  'balik kampung' exodus, since the relatives had met up at her wedding just about 2 months ago. Honestly, it can be  a real (literal) drag, braving the Chinese New Year traffic jam (which, as with all festivals in Msia,  isn't confined to any particular race) across highways to return to Kedah, where I was born. And I am very sure my now so-grown up children are more than happy to stay in KL; free to do their own thing. 

Somehow my family has never been the "jolly get-together" type. Maybe it comes from me growing up being the only adopted child of my uncle and aunt, raised up  alone and away from my other siblings. When I left my adopted parents in Penang to pursue university and stayed on in KL to work, I rarely went back. It's not for lack of love; I can only put it down to an independent spirit. I only started  my regular  "balik kampung" trips when I became a Christian. And even then it was after my husband's passing that I heard God's call to go back and say sorry to my family, for neglecting them all those years. I think my sisters must have been so surprised when I did precisely that. But praise God that broke the (unspoken) distance. I remember those days "lugging" my (then very young) family back together with my brother from KL, staying over in Alor Star for a couple of days. We would all troop to the local Chinese church there for CNY morning service and then do the usual rounds of visiting relatives, whom to this day I confess I don't know how to address properly. So to keep things simple, everybody was just aunty and uncle to my children. 

Well, now we no longer balik kampung every year and the children get to have their say. So it was, this year, it was just the 4 of us, their fave uncle and a fren, totaling 6, just nice to fit the dinner table in my house. I am not the traditional Chinese aunty. You won't find me putting up the usual decor of the season. I hasten to add that goes for Christmas as well. I don't bother much with the traditional "must do this, can't do that" customs, since I myself don't know much, being the "white banana" that I am.  Or as some term it OCBC - Orang Cina Bukan Cina. I don't take it as derogatory, just a fact that's true of me at least. 

This year, I  thought I would try out some new recipes for a change. Whilst it didn't turn out disastrous, it wasn't exactly up to mark . The fish was over-done because I was trying to multi-task, juggling between the wok, the oven and the thermal pot. The oven decided to act up after not being used for quite awhile; it took double the time to roast the chicken, which turned out quite bland. The prawns were much too salty; not the recipe's fault, but mine, as I discovered too late I hadn't put in enough liquid to cook. Well, at least the old-time fave - jiu hoo char - turned out ok. I had actually cooked it the day before, as I knew it would be too tiring for me to handle at the same time with the other stuff.  Anyway, this veg dish always tastes better after a day or two . Heck, I even forgot to get cordial drinks. Age is really catching up on me. But everyone was so gracious. They were ok with plain water. And actually most of the dishes got polished off in the end. So that was our small pre-reunion dinner. 

The next morning as I was going out for my usual cycle round the neighborhood, I accidentally hit the orchid pot placed near the house pillar.  It fell and broke. I went like, oh no, this was part of my no 2 daughter's engagement gift from the in-laws, given almost a year ago. But as I sat down later to re-pot the plant, it struck me actually it's a good thing. For now out of 1 big pot, I got to multiply the plant into 3 small pots. And I discovered why it wasn't growing much in the big pot...because for some peculiar reason, the individual plants were  wrapped in plastic, maybe  to fit into the confined space. I would never have known that if the pot didn't break. Now I could "free" the plants by cutting off the plastic wrap, and letting them "breathe" properly. The cost - a big and really rather pretty pot had to be broken.  

Therein lies the spiritual lesson -  it's not just orchid plants, but really humans also need to be "broken " so as to be set totally free to grow properly. But the problem is no one wants to pay the price - to go through the pain of being broken, for we all want to be happy happy all the time. We run after blessings and miracles instead of chasing the God who blesses, Jesus Christ, the Miracle-Worker. Or we choose to remain in our own "pretty pot" of self accomplishment, wrapped tight in the cocoon of our own clever presumptions about the meaning of life and death, the relevance or irrelevance of God.  

The lesson was driven home even deeper for me when we visited my sister and brother in law in KL on the first day of Chinese New Year morning. They invited us to stay for lunch. Much as I wanted to, I couldn't as I was scheduled to share at the weekly KL street-work I am involved in. Indeed I missed a very good lunch and family fellowship. But it turned out very worthwhile. 

Apparently many of our street frens had gone to other places which gave out angpows, so contrary to expectations, there wasn't any crowd at this street-feeding session. (I guess money talks louder than God??) But for me, it didn't matter how many or how few turned up. At least for the 7 who came, who may not have a home, or who can't/don't want to balik kampung to family for whatever reason, they now know there's a very special place where we can all find rest, peace and freedom on earth and in heaven, now and forever more. And it's not in any family house or religious institution. It's a safe place where I know I stand forgiven of all my sin thru the death of Christ. It's a safe place in the midst of this often chaotic and dangerous world we live in. It's a  place that's already been promised and prepared by Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, the Lover and Savior of our souls, for all who would just believe and receive. Nothing beats that. 

I think that's the best part of CNY 2024 for me -  Knowing without the shadow of a doubt, God has given me awesome blessings more valuable  than any angpow, more satisfying than any fancy fantastic meal, more wonderful than any great family reunion, (which is all well and good)  and being able to tell others they can have it all too. Indeed I can never lose with God, as I found out when I got back to an empty house. My son messages me to say his girl-fren's mom had given lots of food for our dinner. So I don't even need to wonder what to cook for just two of us. Such is the faithfulness of a God who says those who seek Him lack no good thing.  

"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."...John 14:1-3