“House” Moving
By Ps Alby Yip
Our family have just yesterday moved to our new house after 20 years in the old. I thought I would grieve and miss the old house. I did, but more. I realise I grieve also for the “loss” of our neighbours. In fact, the grief was exacerbated when a few neighbours came by to bid goodbye with their eyes tearing up. But something beautiful happened in the midst of grief. Vivienne shared the Gospel with one neighbour and she prayed to receive Christ! Our grief turned to joy!
In fact, the recent months have been a period of heightened grief for me. There were more bereavements than usual and sometimes back-to-back. To be sure, it is an immense privilege to be allowed to journey with the different families as they mourn the loss of their loved ones.
What time is more precious than that few days where the families are still able to “see” their loved ones before the burial or cremation. Hence, mindful of such privilege, I try as best as I could to be keenly sensitive of the needs of the moment, whether in saying something or even knowing to keep quiet.
However, doing so is itself a draining emotional exercise as it involved grieving together with the families. Just recently, a family member asked, “Pastor, how do you cope with such repeated emotional rollercoaster?” Kind of caught off-guard, I stumbled with an awkward, “Pray lor. Ask God for His grace.”
But later Paul’s word in 1 Corinthians 5:1-6 came to mind, “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens… So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord…”
Coping mechanisms, especially in grief, are good. But greater still, it is to possess a hope that transcends this earthly tent and its possessions. That we catch hold of it so tightly that we have no room to hold on to other things. Because our destiny and destination is not in this life, but in the eternal life that God has in store for us.
Yes, moving house, whether the physical house or the physical body, will bring us grief. But let us be reminded that we are only “moving” to a better house. Are you looking forward and ready to “move house” then? Indeed, our earthly grief can and will turn into heavenly joy.
