Numbering Our Days
By Ps Vernon Quek
‘So teach us to number our days…’[1]
These were some of the words that our late brother Edmund Kwok (see Family News) meditated on for his devotions last Sunday the 20thof September. They were God-given words for the last morning devotions that he would have here on earth.
Later that day, at a shopping mall in Jakarta, Uncle Edmund (as I affectionately call him) had a heart attack, and went Home to the LORD shortly after despite the best resuscitation efforts of the hospital just a few minutes away. He was 68 years old.
Uncle Edmund’s sudden loss is a great shock to many of us, understandably given how suddenly he passed. He was and still is very precious to the Zion BP Church family – the local church he was a part of for most of his life before moving to Crossway Church a few years ago to support his son Edric who planted and pastors that church family.
As stories came in and were shared, it was clear that the LORD loved Uncle Edmund dearly, and had used him to point many others upwards to Himself. Our entire bulletin wouldn’t be enough to share all these stories, but let me share just one of my many memories.
The Kwoks and the Queks have always been close. It’s not very well known, but Edric Kwok was my late father Elder Quek Swee Peng’s Godson. Uncle Edmund was our youth deacon in YF back in the 1990s. He faithfully took time every Saturday to turn up for YF, to spend time with us and mentor us each week.
Back in 2011, when I was considering moving back to Zion Bishan after spending some time on Zion Serangoon’s staff team, Uncle Edmund was one person I approached for advice. He was one of the older leaders I was closer to in Zion Serangoon, and so his advice carried a lot of weight on whether I would move over. He encouraged me to remember the wider
Kingdom, and that even though it would mean we would see each other less in our weekly lives, that serving the LORD where the LORD wanted me to serve was the most important thing to do – that the LORD would never fail to look after us if we faithfully obeyed Him in going anywhere for the Kingdom’s sake.
Uncle Edmund’s was an important voice that the LORD used to lead me to return to serve in Zion Bishan, and so I will always cherish him and look forward to the Day we’ll meet again.
Psalm 90:12 goes on to say:
So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
What is this heart of wisdom? Perhaps the last few verses of the Psalm tell us:
Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us.[2]
This is a heart of wisdom: getting on board with God’s work to point others, including the next generation, to God’s power to save sinners[3] through the Gospel of Jesus. Like Edmund Kwok did – for myself and for so many others.
If today was our last day on this earth, would this be said of our lives? That our days were spent doing God’s work and encouraging others to do the same? May it be so, and so may we be able to rejoice and be glad all our days.[4]
[1] Psalm 90:12a
[2] Psalm 90:16 & 17
[3] Psalm 90:7-9
[4] Psalm 90:14
