Chandelier Mania

The season of renovation would be starting soon and it will go on for a month. Two weeks ago , the excitment of dressing up a house, finally my own, has dissolved into this big thing call stress. Maybe I have my many loves to blame. I love the antique, the ornate, the ancient, the rustic, the comfy bits, the odd bits, the cute bits and the list goes on. Essentially a home as we define is is a place we wanted will feel ourselves.

The good thing is David & I share very similiar style in almost everything. That makes life alot simpler. David & I settled on the eclectic look - a marriage of east and west. That day I chanced upon a black, ornate chandelier at lighting store. (ref to pic. it looks exactly like it!) It took my breath away. (how can it not??) It was not osentatious, but was certainly very elegant and classic. I loved it so much i thought about it weeks after we left the shop. I was hoping to find a cheaper equivalent but was unable. Then I ask David if we could just splurge it on this one. It cost about $400 so it is still within the "splurge budget" to just get it. But I also wanted another one for the dining place and two would have taken up the entire budget for all household items that we needed to buy. So it was a no deal. We both agreed that the budget for all the items to be bought should not exceed $1'000. This list includes fridge, washing machine, TV, dining table & chair set, sofa, cabinet, fancy and not so fancy lightings etc .

I suffered from Chandelier mania for 2 wks, then recovered this wk end just past. The world is not our own. I chose to be contented with another kind of ceiling light, those "big bowl" ones that looks like its stuck to the ceiling. I figured that will do, it'll probably cost us at most 20 bucks for a fairly nice one. I saw a cheap one at only 4 bucks! At the dining area, I will be contented with a $ 59 IKEA rod-iron hanging lamp. So there you go, I chose to hold loosely what I have on earth so that I can invest my all in what is eternal. In some sense I still love the chandelier, but perhaps this is just not the right time for it. it is not worth paying an arm and a leg for it, especially when I know that the money could be put to better use.

I had already been blessed by a friend who is giving us a second hand washing machine. Plus we've also got some other quite interesting finds here and there at an unbelievably low price.
I learnt that to be contented with little is great richess. So we continue to count our blessings...

Nothing will remain the same

Tomorrow is Good Friday. I suddenly felt guilty about not remembering it this morning. In my morning walk with Jesus today, I had a need. I asked him to heal me; to remove the cyst in my womb and to put a baby there instead. 4 days ago, God told me to pray persistently and I felt at a lost for words. So I asked God to teach me how he meant by “persistent”. He took me to the passage of the persistent widow, it was simply knocking and knocking till the door opens. It was asking at odd hours, it was asking because I needed it so badly. It was not caring about what time or how long. I just have to keep asking. Then I forgot completely about Good Friday because I was so focused on asking.

But as history has it, Good Friday took place. I never forgot how Jesus died. It was so awful, but I know that out of the depths of his heart, he would have still chosen go through it even if we wouldn’t let. Yesterday he reminded me that it was not just his love. He, a divine being came down to earth to take on the very nature of man, tempted like we do, yet without sin. I didn’t think for a moment it was easy for a prime minister of a state to simply let go of all that he possess, his status, his family, his job and lower himself to that of a begger living under the bridge. Jesus did that. And this act was simply the greatest act of humility ever known in the world.

Tonite, before I go to sleep. I’m going to start thanking him and praising his name. The cyst would be a have been and the baby would be a will be. What I am sure of is this. When Jesus died on the cross, he took upon himself sickness and infirmities, and the entire sin of the world; the past, present and future all rolled up in strips of ribbon-like flesh torn out, and the raw and bloodied back. It was in his tears that he cried & perspiration mixed with vinegar that drips from the man-made thorn-struck crown stinging his freshly opened wounds. He took it to the grave and buried it. Then as dramatically as he entered the grave, he walked out on the 3rd day, alive and unscathed, totally radiant! In this sort of love and glory, I know that I am healed!

Tonight, I will prepare my heart and wait upon my saviour, he has much to say to me, he loved me so much. How then, can I not remember this powerful day.

Welcome Good Friday, nothing will remain the same!