Day 60: Bittersweet Grattitude

Today, my parents and I went to the Chinese Cemetery in Manila. 

gate entrance of the cemetery

I actually wasn't too psyched about it - well, I've actually never been to psyched about visiting the dead. Especially dead people whom I've never met when they were alive. I don't really know if this would make me insensitive, but the mausoleums that we went to were the ones of my mom's grandparents; and to be honest, I think not one cousin from my mom's side of the family have ever met tai gua-ma and tai gua-kong. I appreciate my mom's effort of making them known to us though. It was great hearing stories from her childhood. How in some bizarre way, the cemetery became their playground when they were young. I mean, I know of memorial parks that look friendly and really do look like your average parks. But this cemetery is all hard, dirty, and cold cement.

I don't know how they looked like during my mom's childhood, but this is how they look like now. In each street, there are rows of mausoleums about the size of a small studio apartment that house the remains of each families' loved ones. Historically, it's so interesting for me. It makes me wonder where the early Chinese got the idea that dead people need houses too. It's fascinating, this thing of learning about my culture as a Filipino-Chinese. And I know that I am rooted enough in my faith that I'm certain that the information I will be getting, traditions and culture that will be explained to me will remain just as that - information. 

Oh, I forgot to mention that we also visited this little tomb that belongs to my older sister (I'm not really clear if my mom had a miscarriage or if my ate was a premature baby: my parents never really discussed it with me and I never prodded for answers). So while I'm grateful for God's grace and His Son's redemptive act, it becomes a little bittersweet for me because these family members that we just visited today died without having been saved. I mean, as far as assumptions go with regards to my great grandparents anyway. It is highly likely though that they never got to surrender their lives to God, accept Christ as their Savior. 

It doesn't sadden me because I won't see them in heaven. As far as I'm concerned, they are related to me by blood but not by "relationship". The thing that's saddening is the fact that they didn't get a chance to experience God in their lives while they were alive; that until the very end, they were the masters of their own fate and did turn the reigns over to God. 

Everyone deserves the opportunity to know God. As Christians, this should make us more aware of the importance of reaching out to people who've not heard of the Gospel. And speaking of unreached people, I saw this segment on ABS-CBN about suicides; the people who committed suicide, their families, and how their suicides affected their families. The second segment was about this tribal elder in Palawan whose children all committed suicide. The thing that was surprising though was that it didn't even bother him. He explained that taking one's own life was simply a means of ending life - a quickie solution to end pain and suffering. Almost as though suicides are as common as taking painkillers for a headache. They also think that committing suicide is not a big deal because some people are built to be stronger. They also have no concept of the afterlife, heaven, or hell. When life ends, it ends. That is their belief.

And all of a sudden, it's like I had this burden or longing for someone, anyone, to reach out to them - to tell them of God's goodness, to explain to them that ending your life should be a big deal. Even if they say that the Philippines is the only Christian country in Asia, there are still so many people that need to know God. I mean, they shouldn't be ignored just because they're a minority. Everyone needs God in their lives, even if they don't know of Him yet.

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  -- Acts 1:7-8

We're all called to reach out and be involved in missions, we are required to be God's witnesses wherever we go.

**images are from google, none of those photos are mine.