Sunset of Life

After my run, nearing home, I was greeted by a magnificent view of the setting sun. I grabbed my Android phone and snapped an Instagram, quickly, before the whole scene fades into darkness.

It's a setting sun, low on the horizon, complemented by the street lights. It's like a change of guards at Buckingham palace. A fresh set of guards. The sun's duty is done. The street lamps are taking over.

Somehow this scene brings me back to the early 1970s and 1980s. What's the connection? Well, early in my teens, one of my house duty was to light up a kerosene pressure lamp or two. The signal was the setting sun!

I remember my childhood years. My home was home to an extended family. Altogether there were 17 in the household. This would naturally grow as my uncles and aunts got married. Babies added to the increase as years went by.

The house I grew up in was literally a long house, with several partitions, one room for each of the married couples. Their children would share their rooms respectively. You can imagine what it was like at dinner time! No one eats until the patriarch is seated. No one eats before he picks up his chopsticks and have at least the first mouthful.

The leader of the pack was my great grandfather, a migrant from China. One of the distinct memory I had was of my great grandpa, lying sideways on his wooden bed, his head on a wooden pillow, smoking an opium pipe.

He died when I was still a boy. His coffin was a towering and carved traditional design. It was a funeral setting right out of one of those Chinese ghost movies. Really eerie. It scared the wits out of us little kids. He laid in state, in the living room - ironic indeed - in that imposing coffin, all dressed up like one of the court officials in the ancient imperial court of the emperor of China.

All his children,  and their wives, and us - grandchildren, took turns to sit next to the coffin. During the period of mourning, colorful clothing are banned. Only white and dark blue mourning attire are allowed. This is topped off with sack clothes on the day of burial (a few days later, by which time the odor is not bearable).

Grandpa hired professional mourners for that day. It was disconcerting for a little boy like me. They arrived all chatty and excited as if they were going for a carnival. But their demeanor and expressions changed once the funeral service gets on its way. How they beat their breasts and wailed aloud. They cried as if they had been the closest of friends with my great grandfather for years. But I knew in my little head, this couldn't have been the case. I've never met a single one of them before that day. They've never, in my sincere estimate, ever stepped into our home before then.

Hmm, it's truly interesting how this evening's sunset, set me off on a memory trail to my childhood years.

As I reflect in closing, all of us will, one day go off into the sunset of life. The end of our days on earth. My great grandpa is gone. So is my grandpa, and my pa too. They have gone the way of the earth. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes. One day, it'll be my turn too. And yours too.

I'm comforted because they gave their hearts to Jesus. So, I'm looking forward to a heavenly reunion one day.

In the words of a popular hymn - Because He lives, I can face tomorrow, because He lives, all fear is gone, because I know, I know, He holds the future, and life is worth the living just because He lives.

When I walk into the sunset of my life, Jesus will be there. He's been there all the time, even now, He's with me.

Easter is coming. When our sunsets of life arrive, be sure that Jesus Christ is there for us!