Whoopee! It has been raining in my home-area over the last few days. Our farm, which was looking more like a desert in its brownish-yellow colour, is now turning green. If the rains continue, I expect the farm to have turned beautifully green by this day next week. And by the way, green is my favourite colour of nature.

Today, as I observed our farm begin to turn green thanks to the rains that have been pouring in my home-area, I thought to myself as a wise man would think, "If God can do all these wonders of turning a dry area green, what if we allow Him into our lives? Perhaps He can make our lives more fruitful and full of peace and love."


There is a pumpkin plant growing behind my room. It sprouted by accident after someone threw a pumpkin seed there. While I wait for it to produce pumpkins, I have been religiously watering the plant everyday with the water I use to clean my room.

Over the past four weeks or so as I have observed the pumpkin plant grow in length, I have thought to myself as a wise man would think, "In our times of challenge, what if we turn to the same God who makes living things grow? Perhaps He can strengthen us, expand our vision, lift our spirits and pour out peace."


I agree with the Bible when it says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. A few months ago while thinking of the wonderful construction of the human body and the workings of its various parts, it dawned on me that no other organ of the body is as tightly protected as the brain. Try to poke your forehead with your fingers and you will feel the hard skull that tightly protects the brain.

As I contemplated on how tightly protected the brain is, I thought to myself as a wise man would think, "If we protect our minds from negative thoughts the way the skull protects the brain from external damage, perhaps our lives can start growing beautifully."


Today, I found myself admiring a picture of the Earth as viewed from space (see photo above). And wow! The planet looks breathtakingly beautiful in its bluish, whitish and greenish colours. It is arguably the cutest planet in the solar system.

What I find most fascinating is that the planet looks perfectly spherical when viewed from space. Not even Mt. Everest can be discerned. And mark you, Mt. Everest is the tallest mountain on Earth that only a handful of people have managed to climb since Sir Edmund Hillary's triumphant ascent in 1953.

In the photo of the Earth as viewed from space, Mt. Everest is reduced to the same level as valleys. But some valleys are visible from space by virtue of their bluish or greenish colours. That reminds me of the following verse in The Messiah by George F. Handel:

Every valley shall be exalted;
And every mountain shall be made low,
And the crooked be made straight,
And the rough places plain.

All these teaches us to be wise, humble, hopeful and repentant if we wish to be exalted from God's perspective. But if we insist on being arrogant and boastful, we shall surely be made low in heaven just like the seemingly tall Mt. Everest is made low when viewed from space.


A story is told that when the great Leonardo da Vinci began painting the Last Supper, he decided to use living models of Jesus and his twelve apostles. He first started by painting Judas Iscariot when he spotted a man whose face appeared vicious, malicious, avaricious and hypocritical. Then over the next three years, he successfully found other men who appeared like each of the other eleven apostles.

After he was through with painting the final apostle, da Vinci was lucky to spot a man whose face looked like that of Jesus in that it radiated joy, hope, love and peace. And while da Vinci was painting him as Jesus, the man asked, "Do you know who I am?"

"No, I don't know you," replied da Vinci.

"Well," the man responded, "I am the same man you painted as Judas Iscariot three years ago."

While that story is fictional, it does teach us two valuable lessons: that the appearance of our faces reflects the condition of our souls and that it is never too late to change our character.

So let us strive to become like Jesus by making our faces radiate joy, hope, love and peace. Let us strive to turn our fears into courage, our mockery into compassion, our ignorance into knowledge, our foolishness into wisdom, our idleness into moments of creativity, our anger creases into laugh lines, and our sorrows into hope of a better future on Earth and in heaven. Adieu!

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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed the story above on points to ponder, you might also enjoy another one I wrote some time back on "Life's Like That". Just click on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.