NOT JUST ANOTHER LOVE SONG

 The news came over our watsapp group. The father of one  of the brothers who served regularly with us in the street work had passed on. I sent condolences, not expecting to be able to attend the funeral wake service as it was my church prayer night. But it was postponed, which meant I was free to go pay my last respects. So on a dreary week-day evening, I made my way to the funeral home. What was actually just a 20 minute drive took 45 mins, because of heavy traffic after an afternoon storm.   I am glad I went though. There were not many people on this second (final) night of the wake. I bumped into some familiar faces from the street ministry. 

The brother was the one who did my house renovation some months ago. He had learnt the tricks of the construction trade from his father. Some 5 years ago, his mom who was a Christian had passed on. His father was much affected by the loss, and himself was stricken by Alzheimer's subsequently. Which necessitated this brother to take on the role of full-time care-giver for the old man. 

No easy job, as those who take care of aged, sickly family members can no doubt attest to. The burdens are very heavy; looking after old people requires a lot of physical, emotional and spiritual strength. It's so much easier to just send them to a nursing home. But that's easier said than done. For some it's a finance issue - these homes are not cheap. Moreover some old folks can be very adamant in not being "packed off"  just like that.  For others, it's a "conscience " issue - they don't have the heart to do it to a family member. 

So it was, with this brother. Year after year, he had borne  the major brunt of tending to a father who can be very difficult to handle. I know of another sister who has spent years of her life, shuttling between 2 houses -her own, her parents' - and hospitals, plus juggling her own family needs and a part-time job. I know she's physically and emotionally over the top, yet she can still say Praise the Lord during the rare times we get to chat a bit over the phone.  I know of  several others in the same situation. So much patience is required to cajole and/or  assist the aged to eat, bathe, change; all the little things we able-bodied so take for granted. And I recall my own ordeal when I was sending my husband to/from the hospital for his cancer treatments, having to navigate the walk-ways of the huge place, always getting "lost" in the labyrinth of different departments, always waiting for the lifts that seemed to take, like, forever. 

So as much as there's a sense of grief when the end comes, it's also a release. Certainly we don't want to lose a loved one. Still, especially in cases where the person is already  suffering so much, we know it's better to just let go. As in  the case of this brother's 90 years old father who had already received Christ and been baptized some time back.  The doctor said he needed dialysis for a failing kidney, amputation of a bacteria-eaten leg, and probably his arm too, since it was also infected. The family decided no point surviving in a worse condition than before, just to live.  This brother knew it was time to just let God to either do a miracle of healing or bring his father to finally re-unite with his mom in a much better place, where there are no tears, sorrow or pain - indeed no more death, but eternal life in Christ. That's the joyful assurance that all Christians can look forward to, even in facing death on earth. 

The Pastor who spoke at the wake is someone I have known since some 20 years ago, when we started out together in the street ministry. An ex-drug addict gloriously set free, healed, saved and mightily used by God to reach out to those caught in the death-trap he was in. I would say his message taken from Psalm 90:12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom is the most beautiful I have heard preached at a funeral. And it didn't even take long. 

He recounted how humans are always counting stuff. We  keep count of all our material possessions of the world - shoes, clothes, houses and (especially) money. Aptly he reminded  the words of Jesus in Mark 8:36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?  I was thinking how we also keep count of immaterial things - complaints, offenses and hurts done unto us -  festering like poisonous thorns embedded in our hearts. 

I remember a quote from somewhere - we enter the world with fists clenched and leave with hands open. Pastor put it another way: all the water we try to cup and hold within our hands throughout our lives on earth will still drip away, bit by bit by bit, till nothing is left.  But when we hang onto Christ instead, we catch hold of an eternal life that can't slip away.  He even made a dig at AI, which is all the rage now...indeed AI can give answers to everything, but AI can't give eternal life. Only Jesus can do that. 

Still humans being human would rather do their own thing their own way. He told the story of a boss who sent one of his employees to the drug-centre to be rehabilitated. The young man accepted Jesus as his Savior, was totally freed of his addiction and returned to work again. When he tried to talk to his boss about Jesus, the latter said he didn't need God since he already had everything he needed - money, good life, successful business, family. Eventually the boss died of a heart attack; leaving behind everything he had accumulated on earth. 

And that's why we should be counting our days on earth, instead of all the other stuff that we can't take along when we leave it, as we all must...one day in our lives. The problem is we don't realize how fast our days pass. When we are 30,  we think we have another (very long) 50 years to live, since it's stated in Psalm 90:10 The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty. Anything more is a bonus.

But in the blinking of an eye, especially when we look at how our children or our own white hair have grown, we are counting down to 25 years left, then 15, then 10, then 5 years left. What about the last 5 minutes before we breathe our last?  Or the last few seconds...will we be like this brother's father, who can't even remember anything much, but because he's called upon the name of Jesus, he's done counting the old life;  and is set to begin a new life forever more,  safe and saved with God, His Creator. 

I like how Pastor puts it... our life is merely a candle that burns away day by day by day. Some candles have already burnt half its length. Some still have a long way to go . Some are burning dangerously - from both ends.  

Fittingly, the brother who leads worship in our street work, sang a song for his father. It's a Cantonese song titled (in English):  Unreserved Love  with some very touching lyrics..." nowhere can one find love long and true ...the world just thinks love comes and passes thru ..Who died on the cross and took away my curse? Great is Your love, I don't think I should deserve....Your bleeding hands proved Your love unreserved...You're my only joy and treasure on earth.. let the whole world know Your love and grace... "

A son, singing a final song for his late father,  choking at some points, overcome with emotion.  But it was carried through by other voices in the hall; apparently it's a well-known tune. Two others told me the same song was sung at their wedding and baptism respectively.  A love song that never "goes out of date" because it's grounded in a divine love totally undeserved and unreserved, yet freely given to all by a God who is Himself love.  As the wake closed with the usual walking by the casket, I looked into the coffin, seeing the face of an old man I didn't  know. But this one thing I do know - death has lost its sting, swallowed up in victory, at the cross of Jesus...

"For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality." 1 Corinthians 15:53

 

 

 

What's Out There?

It was the title that caught my eye, Project Hail Mary. I mused why would a sci-fi film made in Hollywood use that kind of title? Hail Mary is a Catholic prayer I remember the nuns in my Convent secondary school taught us to recite. I didn't know anything about Christianity then. I just knew I felt so... peaceful whenever I entered the small stained glass chapel in the school. I would  dutifully dip my finger in the basin of water placed outside and cross myself before I stepped in to kneel on the pews to say the prayer.  It was only more than 30 years later that I learnt what Christianity is really all about .  

Apparently the film's title echoes a certain technique in American football called the Hail Mary pass, which essentially means a desperate, last ditch effort to score.  According to Wikipedia, due to the difficulty of a completion with this long forward pass, it references the Catholic  "Hail Mary" prayer for strength and help, implying that it would take a miracle to succeed.

So likewise, the film features the near impossible attempt of a scientist-downgraded -to- teacher-turned-reluctant hero to save humanity on earth,  because its sun is being eaten up by a spreading microorganism called  Astrophage. The spacecraft itself is named Hail Mary, representing its make-or-break, last resort mission.  Mary is the AI computer system on the ship, functioning as back-up assistant to the sole protagonist Ryland Grace. 

I dunno if the author of the book itself is a Christian, but for me, the names and the whole plot have  the  markings of Christianity all over it. A last-ditch attempt to save humanity. A suicidal one-way trip to another star system that would be the only hope for earth's survival. Straight away I think of  Jesus who sacrificed Himself on the cross to save mankind from a destructive "organism" called sin. 

Ryland Grace is no willing savior though; here's a guy who considers himself a failure, who has to be literally kidnapped and forcefully injected into a coma to get him on board Hail Mary . When he wakes up, he finds  his other 2 crew-mates dead, leaving him the sole survivor to  bury them in  space.  His  very name is such an apt pun - Grace, mirror-ing the first line of the prayer  Hail Mary, full of grace. Indeed, grace was what he needed and what he had for the journey, which would involve just him and an alien he named Rocky.  Rocky, a totally funny,  really lovable and solidly dependable character which name envisages for me  the true Rock of salvation who goes all out to save a friend, a being so totally different, yet so totally loved. That's what a divine Jesus did when He came to earth for the human species - the creation God so totally loved. 

From the very first "go", the movie had me. Who can Not relate to Ryland Grace, actually a scientist with a brilliant mind, ostracized, rejected by his own. Which human has never been disappointed by another human? How many of us simply withdraw into our own "safe" shells, letting life pass us by, because of fears and hurts we have experienced,  which are easier to just bury in our hearts than to resolve? 

But God our Creator doesn't pass us by.  Whether we like it or not, His call will come, most probably when we are at our most "contented as we are" stage in life. That's when He pops up to shake us up. So it was with Grace, "happily" (or not) trying to explain to kids why earth's sun is being "eaten up", a bit or a lot. When the call comes through Eva, the tough lady in charge of the project, and Grace says he's not ready to sign up, she refuses to accept his "no" because she has faith in him. Isn't that so like God, who refuses to give up on anyone, even though they give up on themselves? That's my God who says, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain..."(John 15:16). Big fruit, small fruit, doesn't matter. What matters is good fruit - which remains.  

When Grace makes excuses, that "I don't have the bravery gene that you all have.." the lead scientist who has volunteered simply pointedly says, " ..it's not a gene. You just need to find someone to be brave for."  There are indeed many worthwhile altruistic causes people can volunteer for; all of which are very noble and good. But the one that beats them all is that which calls for a sacrifice of oneself for others, even to the point of death. In other words, who would we die for? Jesus  died for the world. 

The first meeting between Grace and Rocky is so endearing. Imagine a big rock with 5 appendages sticking out like our hands and legs.  Grace uses Mary the AI computer to "translate" Rocky's sounds into English so they can communicate. Very quickly Rocky learns human language, expressing itself in a quirky way, ending almost everything with the word, question. It's like Msians ending our sentences with "la." 

So here's 2 lonely beings, 1 earthling and 1 alien from planet Erid,  thrown together in a wild frontier called space. It's a long movie - 2 1/2 hours - with just 2 main characters interacting most of the time, yet, they manage to pull it off superbly; making me laugh and cry, sometimes even simultaneously. Rocky moves in to become Grace's space-mate, since both have lost all their crew. It's so touching  when Rocky tells Grace it will watch him sleep, because Eridians are totally paralysed when they sleep, they can't wake up themselves. And Rocky in turn insists Grace watch it sleep. It reminds me how my God watches over me... In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. (Psalm 4:8)  

There's plenty of action that follows as they journey through space to get the precious anti-Astrophage specimens to save their respective planets. But after learning that Grace cannot return home, Rocky offers enough astrophage to refuel Hail Mary. There's such pathos when Rocky says simply, "Rocky watch whole crew die. Rocky not fix. Grace say Grace will die. Rocky fix."  But Grace is rendered unconscious in an accidental fuel leak.  Which leads to Rocky breaking  his own protective  spacesuit to save Grace, but in the process is itself severely injured.  So now it's Grace who takes care of Rocky. After Rocky "resurrects" from hibernation,  both head off to return to their respective home planets. It seems all will end well. 

But in a twist of events, Rocky's ship is in danger because its fuel is being eaten up by the astrophage- consuming organism. Now Grace has to make a choice - he can go on back to save earth, or  save Rocky.  It's a poignant reminder that we will all have to make difficult and/or conflicting choices in life.  How we choose reveals whether our heart is for self-preservation or for others.  Grace chooses to forego his own "thing",  sending off his research and specimens back to earth on automated mini-ships launched from Hail Mary . He himself turns back to rescue Rocky and so gets to begin a new life on planet Erid; living in a special biodome exactly like earth with beaches and all, created for him by his alien friends. 

Even when Rocky tells him that Eridian scientists have finished repairing Hail Mary so he can go back home,  Grace simply turns to  begin another day of teaching science to Eridian children. It's a beautiful scene,  it makes me contemplate - where is home really?  Is there a better place, a heaven "somewhere out there?"  For me, it's not a physical location, no matter how beautiful. Home is ultimately where we can be with the One who loves us with an everlasting love, that goes beyond human love, which ultimately is all transient and temporary. 

In an earlier scene before the onset of the journey into space, Grace had asked the project leader Eva, "Do you believe in God? Her reply: "It's better than the alternative." It wasn't so much of her personal belief but a pragmatic response to a scenario of total destruction, that anything is better than death.  Actually, that's not just a line from a fictitious film, but a reality already spoken of in the Bible, for the wages of sin is death. Unlike a fictitious Hollywood film, there really is an alternative to death  which doesn't depend on anything that human heroes can accomplish; but on a God who alone can save :   "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men  by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12.) That name is Jesus Christ, the One who gave His all for the all whom He loved.