Happy Chinese New Year?

On the first day of the Chinese New Year, we visited my three aunts, in Aberdeen, Ap Lei Chau and Tuen Wan.  We are glad to see them.  But it was exhausting.  Hence today, we got up late and just stay home.  Throughout the day, I have been receiving and sending New Year’s greetings.  Almost without fail, we wish each other good health,  good fortune and prosperity.  Many of us also invoke God’s blessings.  It is cool but sunny outside.  I just finished a book and will soon start a new one.  My wife cooked a very tasty pasta lunch.  I roasted some nuts and had a cup of tea, while my wife and daughter had ice cream.  My wife is sewing.  My daughter will cook tonight. All in all, a good day.  

All the time, however, I cannot help but think that there is more to life than health, prosperity, and blessings from God.  Less than a month ago I witnessed first hand people struggling to make a living in the slums in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  

Immediately before that I visited friends in Rwanda who live in houses of literally four walls of mud, with very little else.  Most have no running water nor electricity. 

Less than a month before that, my wife and I were in India, which has the largest number of people in absolute poverty, many of them women and children.  The situation was shocking, even though we were mentally prepared for it.  

Even in Hong Kong, right outside our homes and churches, there are plenty of people in poverty, ethnic minorities with few opportunities, … and so much injustice.  

For most of these people, what we consider as God’s grace and Good News seem alien.  

At the beginning of the year, we indeed should thank God for His grace, and wish each other good health and prosperity.  However, how can we reconcile our good fortune with these other scenes, unless we are working hard with God to bring God’s grace to them as well?