I hope everybody enjoyed their holidays. I spent most of my holiday, reading and not getting any of my assigned work done. Spending quality "nomad" time with my father visiting known and unknown family members is something every father-son relationship needs. A typical conversation at a relative's house could proceed as follows:
Father: Do you know where we're going?! Me: Of course I don't! You're the one planning this trip! Sister: Stop yelling. Andrew, find out where we are supposed to go. Me: I told you, I have no idea where we are going. Dad is planning this trip. Stepmother: (Mandarin Chinese, a little too fast most of the time for an unfortunate Cantonese speaker like me to understand. When I can understand it, it is usually a complaint.) Father: We're going to see (insert family member's name)! Me: Okay, well, if they live in (blank) town, then we just take (blank) road north! Father: What?! I haven't seen a sign for that (blank) road for a whole mile! Me: Trust me, alright? I know roads. Just follow this road. Stepmother: (complaint) Sister: Andrew, stop yelling! Dad, you should have been more prepared... Father: That's it. I'm pulling over... GIVE ME THE MAP! Me: Fine, you want the map? Here's the map, take it. You will still have to go on this road!
It is times like these that make me have quality reflection time. It is never during the argument, but during the subsequent awkward silence. During one of these times after a particularly feisty row, I remember thinking to myself about how miserable my holiday was going along. For some odd reason, I thought of a random memory in my late elementary school years:
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My father, at that time, had sold off his restaurant and began his nascent career as an honest Chinese businessman (some may say an oxymoron). The particular scene occurs in the Stapleton airport in Denver, CO. My father rushes to board the plan with his wife in children in tow. We pass the gates marked 24B, 25B, 26B... We reach a gate that seems a little too wide for the sitting areas, but too narrow to add an extra gate. My father looks at my mother and kisses her on the cheek, as she gives him his jacket, reminding him to call when he gets there. Mom seems slower in her pace, I didn't know that the some time before, she had told my father that she would not be accompanying him to China, and would stay with the children. My sister's sobs trigger my eyes to water. Although I saw my father on intermittent weekends because he was working until early in the morning at the restaurant, I was to not be able to see my father for an entire six months. For some odd reason, the scene became more dramatic than it should have been. My father briskly walked to the gate, gave his ticket, turned one time around, and walked out carrying his suitcase. I don't recall if I cried, I couldn't have, but being surrounded by my sister and my mother, I can't remember. |
While driving down the road, I just started hating my father. How could he have left my mother? Even now, during our car ride, I felt that my father did not comprehend the impact of his absence. Could things have changed for my sister and I? Could we be going to different schools? Why do some of the worst children get blessed with amazingly loving and patient parents when others have one strained, over-burdened one? Does Brad Pitt in Fight Club say it correctly, "If our fathers are our models for God, what do we do when he leaves us?!" One of the only saving graces of the Christian Right is the essential idea of a family- an important aspect of a child's life. The thoughts and possibilities ring through my head as rain pours down the side of the Toyota Previa. What could seduce a man? The easy answers of fame, glory, and power ring through my head, making me stop and think of my own passions and longings. Is infamy such a worthwhile pursuit at the expense of family sufferings? I just can't wait till I'm back home...
Show the compassion of Christ for people who suffer from creation's destruction (Proverbs 14:31). Demolish strongholds of sin that tarnish the glory and integrity of God's good creation (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). Build our Lord's kingdom by active service to restore and renew the works of his hands (Matthew 6:33; Ephesians 2:10). Share the Gospel with those who do not know that Jesus Christ is the ultimate Hope for creation groaning under our sin and the only Hope for our own souls (Romans 8:19-21; Colossians 1:20, 27).