A date with the Lord

It is that time of the year, when some of us start to spring clean our homes, buy new clothes, change new bank notes and bake or buy cookies / cakes. Yes, the Lunar New Year is just around the corner.

This year, Lunar New Year falls on Monday, 26 January 2009. For the Chinese, it is traditional for family members would gather together on the Eve of the Lunar New Year to have a meal. This meal is known as "reunion dinner". In the past, the matriarch of the family would cook the reunion dinner, assisted by the females in the family. Nowadays, it is not uncommon for families to have their reunion dinner at restaurants. Also, the reunion dinner is not always held on the Eve of the Lunar New Year anymore.

My family will be having our reunion dinner at Da's and my home tomorrow night (Saturday, 24 January 2009). I will be cooking the dinner. My mother wanted to have the reunion dinner at a restaurant, to save all the hassle of cooking, but the several restaurants that she contacted were all fully booked for tomorrow.

My family is not having our reunion dinner on the Eve of Lunar New Year (Sunday, 25 January 2009) as we will be driving to Muar, Malaysia on the Eve of Lunar New Year to celebrate the Lunar New Year with my mother's relatives. As such, the extended family will be having the reunion dinner in Muar on Sunday night.

I took leave from work today as I had chores to attend to. I drove to Marine Parade Central in the morning and did some grocery shopping for tomorrow night's dinner. As I was about to reach home, I remembered that I wanted to buy some new plants for our home. As such, I made a detour to a nearby nursery where I bought 4 pots of plants with beautiful flowers at S$6 each. There was some confusion as I was paying for the purchases because the nursery staff told me, "S$6, S$6, S$6 and S$6 - total S$32". I told him that the total was S$24 but he kept repeating himself. Suddenly, he stopped and grimaced before he sheepishly told me that the total was indeed S$24. Not to worry - there were many customers like myself making last-minute purchases of plants and it was not surprising that the staff was probably exhausted.

By the time I reached home, the noon sun was high in the sky. My headache (which I had been having since Sunday, 18 January 2009) became quite bad and my head started to pound. I quickly took 2 tablets of paracetamol as I was reluctant to take the muscle relaxant (which also contains paracetamol but is stronger) which the company doctor prescribed for me on Tuesday, 20 January 2009 as the muscle relaxant would make me drowsy and I had chores to attend to.

I put away the groceries and started making "zi zhoh" (sweet potato kueh). The recipe for this snack originated from people who came from China. This is one of the recipes that my maternal grandmother gave me. While the recipe is simple, what is exhausting is the mixing of the mashed sweet potato with the glutinous rice flour and the sugar because it is very dense.

Perhaps it was a combination of factors but my headache, the mixing of the sweet potato with the flour and the heat from the hot oil (as the "zi zhoh" would have to be fried) resulted in my headache escalating into a migraine attack. Out of desperation, I took 2 tablets of the muscle relaxant but to no avail. I struggled to finish making the "zi zhoh" and I had to sit down while the "zi zhoh" was frying because I could barely stand up. I even went to the toilet several times in an attempt to vomit as that would help to ease the migraine.

When Da sent me a text message to say that he was on his way home and asked me to get ready to go to church, I was torn. There was a special Lunar New Year church service to be held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium at 7.30 pm today. Da and I had earlier arranged to attend the church service with Da's cousin, MT. Reluctantly, I replied to Da to tell him that I was under the weather and I suggested that he go ahead and attend the church service without me. When I told Da that, I did not have a sense of peace within me. However, at that point in time, the headache overtook everything.

When Da reached home, I was in two minds. To attend church or not to attend church? My first inclination was to switch on the air-conditioning in our bedroom and lie down to rest. However, I found myself getting ready to go for the church service. Frankly speaking, at that point in time, I had no idea how I was going to last through the night.

En route to the Singapore Indoor Stadium, Da and I went to fetch MT. (Hi MT, my apologies for not making any conversation in the car. I was struggling with my headache at that time.) I kept praying silently and rejecting the headache that I was having. 2000 years ago, Jesus took my sicknesses and diseases upon Himself so that today, I can claim a healthy life. There was therefore no reason why I had to suffer the headache.

After we had parked our car at the open-air car park at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, we alighted the car and walked towards the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Despite my headache, I could feel my footsteps getting lighter and lighter. In the words of MT, we had a date with the Lord! I felt a feeling of anticipation.

As we were running late, Da told MT that it was unlikely that we would be able to get a good seat and we may have to sit behind the stage (where the view would be blocked). I said a quick prayer to the Lord to let us have good seats. As we entered the Singapore Indoor Stadium, the ushers at each aisle kept turning us away, saying that his/her aisle was full, and asking us to proceed to the next aisle. When we reached the last aisle at the side of the stage, the usher told us that the seats at the back of the stage were not open and we had to proceed to one level higher for seats (which would have meant that we could barely see the stage at that distance). I found my feet rooted to where I was. I did not want to move! Another usher came towards us and asked me how many seats we wanted. When I told her "three seats", she replied, "Let me see what I can do." At that point, I felt victory in my heart. I knew that the seats in that aisle were ours. Even while that usher was trying to obtain three seats for us, other ushers came towards us and tried to make us proceed to the seats that were one level higher. However, I stood firm as I knew that we would have seats at that aisle. And indeed that was the case. No only did we manage to get seats at that aisle, we had very clear view of the stage and our seats were also near the stage. Furthermore, the service had not yet started even though it was way past 7.30 pm. Praise the Lord! Despite the fact that my headache was so bad that I asked Da to go ahead without me, despite the fact that we were late, our Abba Father not only made sure that we had good seats, He also made sure that we did not miss out on any part of the church service! I gave a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord as we sat down. While waiting for the church service to start, I closed my eyes and continued to pray silently.

Jesus is our support and He makes all things for our good. He came to give us abundant zoe life. When we believe that we are righteous, we are walking in the spirit and in no time, the power of God will manifest in our lives.

The church service was awesome. There was such a presence of the Lord in the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Do you know something even more awesome? After the service, Da turned towards me and asked (although I believe that he meant it as a rhetorical question), "You did not have any headache during the church service, did you?". I paused - Da was right. My headache (which I had been suffering since Sunday, 18 January 2009) was gone. Praise the Lord! Our Abba Father is always ready to help us; all we have to do is ask.

By the time the church service was over, it was closer to 11 pm. As most food establishments would have been closed by then, MT suggested that we have our dinner at the McDonald's near the Singapore Indoor Stadium. This outlet is open 24 hours a day.

Despite the late hour, we had a very enjoyable dinner. We left McDonald's at 1+ in the morning, gave MT a lift home and made our way home, where I crawled into bed and was asleep in the blink of an eye. Yawn!

Thank You, Abba Father, for Your Word says that I have wholeness and health through Your Son. Jesus is the truth, the way and the life.