Some of my CNY postcard fai-chuns started arriving their North American destinations this past week. My friends started messaging me one by one the photos of the Blessed Sleeping Tigers, I was happy receiving their messages as much as they receiving my little pieces of art.
The past week had been rather gloomy. Local pandemic numbers continued to rise with COVID cases hitting 5 digits. A few of my friends got infected and are staying home to quarantine. War broke out in Ukraine and all of a sudden the World seemed to have hasten its spiral down to doom. When the world is coming to an end, what am I supposed to do other than staying home to eat, sleep, and be merry?
It turned out that I was not entirely useless while working from home. An uncle asked a mathematical problem and I conjured up the high school trigonometry equations I still remembered to help him. Another friend bought a 3D object file but couldn’t open it and I helped him slice it into a 2D file that he can import into his CNC machine. It was good to be able to help others while working from home.
On Sat., my studio’s next door neighbor called my mobile phone for the first time and I went back to the studio to help him download and print a small 3D boat model. My colleague was at work for the first time on Sat., it was the first time I saw her in person since CNY holidays. She was finishing some work before her re-scheduled surgery on Mon. I helped her sign some cheques and told her that I’ll ask my fellowship group to pray for her.
When the world seemed to be coming to an end, my unusual helpful week seemed like God’s roundabout way of telling me that I was still useful and could still brighten someone’s day by lending a little helpful hand.
“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” (Ephesians 2:10)
