Butterfly Kisses

Saturday, 21st June 2008

Early this year, Ps Reuben preached about this being a year of new beginnings.

And indeed it has been.

1. God gave me a new job on 1 April 2008, confirmed me after just 2 months, and given me the privilege to tithe 40% more than I did in my previous job.

2. God gave my son a new kidney on 10 April 2008, which enables him to be more mobile, and allows our family to look forward to going on long holidays together.

Because of the longer hours at work on weekdays, and the commuting to the hospital for follow-up treatments on weekends, the time I have been spending with my daughter has been greatly diminished.

That is why I treasured that Sunday afternoon on 1 June when father and daughter went for a movie marathon: we watched Prince Caspian and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull back-to-back :-)

And just this week, my daughter had to be go back to school a week earlier to join her fellow P6 cohort for supplementary lessons. I played chauffeur to her for the 5 mornings by sending her to school.

On Wednesday, we swung by the McDonalds at Serangoon Central on the way to her school. She had wanted to buy breakfast for some of her friends. After getting the burgers and hot cakes, she sorted them out in the plastic bag and then did something that stirred my heart --she returned one of them back to the counter staff.

Seems like they had accidentally given her an extra burger.

This may seem like a trivial matter. After all the burger cost less than $3.

But it meant a great deal to me, especially after what she had been through recently.

I praise our Lord Jesus Christ for ingraining this trait of honesty into my precious daughter at such a young age.

She is also a very generous person-- recently she bought her brother a Chelsea bear (that costs her entire weekly allowance), as well as a talking bear holding a smiley for me for Fathers' Day. She also puts 1/3 of her weekly allowance into the offering bag.

Just put yourself in her shoes for a moment...

1. She has seen her dad being removed as cell leader and treasurer.
2. She has seen her dad's cell group being disbanded.
3. She has seen her mom and brother being away in hospital for 6 weeks.
4. She has seen her dad and granddad making their way to the police station.
5. She has seen her pet hamster Hannah escaping -- and it's been one month already -- in fact, she and her brother just made a video as a tribute to her. Check this out...




But through it all, she has remained positive, because somehow or other, the grace message about how good God is, has rubbed off onto her. The recent "decent exposure" is a case in point.

Sure, this dad of hers has made many mistakes along the way. No dad is perfect, except our Heavenly Daddy.

But when I see her smile with those dimples showing, or call me "daddy" in her sweet little voice, I am reminded of the song by Bob Carlisle entitled "Butterfly Kisses", especially the line that goes

Oh with all that I've done wrong
I must have done something right
TO deserve a hug every mornin
And butterfly kisses at night

Ok lah, I don't get hugs in the morning or butterfly kisses at night; just a "hello daddy" and "goodnight daddy". But the talking bear that is sitting on a shelf in my room in the office makes a great conversation piece with colleagues :-)