FOOD FOR THOUGHT
(00/00/2012)
FAMILY
RESEMBLANCES
Cindy Hong
One of my favorite pastimes at
HCC is looking at the children and matching their facial parts to one parent
or the other. Some favor the mom; others are mirror images of the dad. This
one has his eyes and her chin, that one has her nose and his ears. Oh, and
that dimple! Teenagers and adult children aren't exempt from my pastime
either and I've been known to call someone by a parent's name. It's also
interesting to see that some kids don't favor mom or dad too much, but the
siblings are splitting images. That seems to be the case with the niece
and nephew, even though the sister-in-law bemoans the fact that both kids
look Chinese, whereas I do think that as they get older, they're looking
more and more Korean, and splitting images of the other. Even when she laments
the non-latent Hong gene in them, their eating habits leave no doubt they
are Korean. Chinese food to them consists of chicken and broccoli (without
the broccoli) and lo mein noodles. But when they eat Korean, they forget
to chew while stuffing their faces and smacking their lips in their haste
to swallow the kimchi and kalbi and rice. The Christmas holidays are spent
in Los Angeles with their halmoni and halapoji , and
one evening they get dressed up in their colorful hanboks for
the traditional bowing ceremony to the grandparents, testifying to their
Koreanness. Every so often I'll pick a Bible character to journey with for
a few weeks or a few months, and lately, Peter and I have been buddies.
From his call narrative in Luke 5, I was reminded that I'm responsible for
casting the net, the catch in the net is up to Jesus. From John 21, I was
reminded that despite times of doubts and denials, Jesus' posture toward
me isn't one of condemnation but grace, and because of His grace, I don't
need to play the comparison game anymore but am to trust Him. As Peter follows
Jesus, he's looking more like Jesus, that by the time we get to Acts 4,
others could see that though he was “uneducated and common,” he had been
with Jesus. This “unschooled and ordinary” fisherman even pens two letters
in the New Testament canon, testifying to God's sanctifying work in his
life. Perhaps unimaginable to us, yet who can imagine what is possible through
God's wonder-working power? As we follow Him, may we favor Him more and
more, continuing to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, so that others can see the Jesus gene in us.
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