The Most Beautiful And The Ugliest

This blog has taken me days to write, perhaps with so much to write, yet finding no word appropriate to describe. Pondering on the cross. I have come to one conclusion, my own conclusion. The cross, the most beautiful expression of the love this world has ever witnessed, but is also the ugliest human act ever performed on this earth.

The most beautiful expression of the love of God, that God Himself would actually send forth His only begotten Son to come and die for mankind. My puny human mind still cannot understand why should the Creator send forth His One and only Son to come and save a group of rebellious creation? I have done many models of buildings since trained as an architect, much as I love my design and creations, I still cannot bring myself to die for them. What I will likely do is that I will abandon the old and create a better one.

Looking at the expanse of the universe, I wonder why would the Greatest Being, the Creator, bothers to come into this earth, unto this tiny planet, to be confined to the dimension of time, body and space, to live among us, and yet the most unfathomable part of it all, His destiny is to die, His purpose, one great mission in His life, to die for His beloved - us.

This is love. I believe it will take me the whole eternity to discover...

The ugliest human act. We put our Creator, the One that brought us forth into this world, to death. We turned our back against Him, the One who gave us everything on this earth to enjoy. This act alone is worse than any war or human act that we human beings have ever performed.

The ugliest human act in History ever, putting the One who created us to the cross.

What a moment in history, when the most beautiful expression of love and the ugliest act coincide!

When I ponder on this, everything around me fades away, every fear and cause of worry, every undesirable circumstance no longer seems threatening, for if Jesus loves me enough to die for me, what is there to fear anymore? Frustration comes, disappointment surfaces, fear appears, worry invades, when I lose sight of the cross... The cross, where my Lord shows me how much He loves me. The greatest Being loves me!

As I ponder, the perspective in life becomes clearer and clearer. The reason why there are times I still feel frustration, disappointment, betrayal, let down, anger, all these happen in one form or another when I lose sight of the One who died on the cross for me... All my loved ones and friends out, there, do help me out with this. If (whenever) I ever fall into these traps again in the coming days, do remind me instantly that I have again lost sight of the One who love me and gave Himself for me, this is the best thing you can ever give to me then, friends.

As for now, I endeavour by His grace only, that this vision will never be taken away before my eyes. I pray the same for you too.

Blessed Christmas! Jesus loves me! He is the reason for this joyous day!

(I finished the painting above last year during my 6-month long break, titled "behind the cross", this is where I am living now, enjoying all that He did on the cross for me.)

Holiday Holiday

Enters into my first week of school holiday this week. Just immediately after the final day of school for this semester, I flew off for a really short holiday to Taiwan! And before I know it, the holiday is over, and I am now sitting down before my laptop, typing this.

Going to school is really fun, for the last 5 months, attended school in the morning and rushing off to work in the afternoon was a daily joyful routine. Not sure how to put this into words, it was something I enjoyed doing daily. Despite the full day of concentration required, despite the little flexibility to my time management (I used to be able to decide when I want to go holiday, and for how long, normally for about 3 weeks), despite lesser time for entertainment, watching TV, etc, it is truly fulfilling. It is almost like I have lived my day to the fullest, with little to regret.

Now that I enter a month of school holiday, back to a full day's work. Today is just the first day. Still adjusting, at least for today, it is truly quite hectic with 2 meetings, and several hours at site, climbing up and day, solving issues and problems, still it was fun.

Quite amazing, for the last 6 days, I went Taiwan with my nephew, our free and easy trip, actually more like a shopping and eating trip. I like Taiwan, though this is not my first time there, I still like Taiwan, and will likely go back again in a few years time. Shopping is great, at Wufenpu and Ximending, fashion and style that I love! Food is really not expensive. Way finding is easy, afterall, we stay in Ximending, a great location to stay! Besides visiting the "must-visit" such as 101, museum, and memorial halls, we venture slightly further north to Danshui, Yangmingshan (lots of hiking), go down to Wulai, and go east to Ruifang by train, visited Jiufen, one of those lovely scenic streets that I loved, has a little flavour of Kyoto. Finding the way around was not really tough, but the road names are a bit confusing, and taking buses are not easy if one cannot read Chinese.

The whole trip has marks of Daddy God's blessing. We have such wonderful pleasant weather throughout, there were no rainy days (though internet weather forecast said it was likely to rain for a few days), the weather was cool except for the last day when it was hot, however, that was the day that we also learnt how to take bus to lessen walking and it was our shopping day anyway.

The journeys out of Taipei was planned really quite last minute, one day before the actual day, simply relying on brochures and lonely planet (though the latter was not really reliable, some important information was missing, such as not informing us that visitor's centre at Yangmingshan is closed on Monday, some buses that brings one around scenic areas only run on public holiday and weekend, etc, etc.) But still, thank God, we made it to those places and made our way back too. And we managed to save a substantial amount as we did not take on any package tours which I initially was planning to, and therefore save more money for Christmas shopping!

This trip will likely mark the last oversea holiday for this year for me, till I finally graduate in May next year, before I go for my next holiday, not sure where.... But definitely, something to look forward to. However, meanwhile, I will enjoy my holiday, and look forward to school reopens! Cheers!