People of joy & optimism #3: my aunt Leonie, my parents +Kong & +Lan

"Always trust in God's Providence!"

"Always trust in God's Providence!" All my teenage years, I heard those words echoed by my mother. I recently discovered this photo of my auntie and parents taken in the 1950's in the Caribbean. Their youthful enthusiasm inspires me to conclude my trilogy on the topic of chara, joy and optimism. Chara comes from the Greek word chairein meaning 'to greet.' In Christian language, it regains its full sense in unrestricted pure joy. That enthusiasm for the future, that joyful spirit from any age does not come cheaply. It is usually born out of much pain & suffering. Even before World War II, my parents, in particular my mother and her sister understood that message. They learnt the hard lessons of life early. When Mamie was 5 years old, her mother died suddenly at the age of 25. "Imagine," she told me, "when I was that young someone said to me, "what would you do if God takes away your father?" Tragically, grandpa died a year later. He was 28. My mother said to me many years later: "Looking back yes we were young and yes, today we're reasonably happy and settled in life. My siblings and I realize God had his protective hands over us,that God really loved us though we lost our parents and though we were separated when we were young." "Son," she confided in me, "always trust in God's Providence!" In experiencing death at such a tender age, my mother and her sister taught me that when we know where we are headed; when we realize that our eternal home is in heaven; we become more tolerant, kinder and less fretful.

"Trust in God's providence" still reverberates deeply in my heart as I grow older. I look at their enthusiasm for the future in the 1950's and I take courage. Can we accept their gift to us? Can we trust in that divine providence? "Chara" as I earlier mentioned strongly signifies that in life we will have pain and suffering but we should still be hopeful in joy. "Chara" has that element of optimism even when pain seems so overwhelming. I think my relatives in this photo and so many, you and I know, can still teach us something about Providence wrapped up in an enthusiasm for life!