Today is your birthday

Dearest Zi On,

Today is your birthday -- 14-01-2008.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ! SON, MY DEAR SON.
You are 26 today! We celebrate your life!

On, Happy Birthday! I love you, mama loves you, Pa loves you,
Zi Lu loves you.

The Lord Jesus loves you! Yes, God, our Heavenly Father, He who created you, He loves you.

I praise God because you are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are a unique individual, specially created for a special purpose. You are highly valued by God.

After papa and I were married in 1979, I began to pray that God would give us a son. Yes papa and I prayed to God for you.

Yes, I remember I asked God like Hannah did that God would give me a son, I specifically asked for a son. And I also told the Lord that my son would be given to Him for His use – that his life would be useful to Him.

As I look back now, yes, the Lord has indeed heard my prayers.
God gave you to us, and God used you.

‘What name shall we give our son?’ we asked when you were born.
When we looked into the Bible for inspiration and guidance
Psalm 50:2 stood out:

Out of Zion, perfect in beauty,
God shines forth.

We know Zion refers to God, His holy mountain, the mountain which symbolizes God, His righteousness and His total attributes of His holiness and perfection. It was our prayers and desires that this gift from God, this son of ours would develop the attributes of godliness and that God would shine forth in his life.

In order to retain the Chinese identity, we had broken the word Zion into 2 parts Zi On and to add another meaning to his name. ie.
Zi On is made up of 2 Chinese characters. Zi in Chinese means fulfilled, On is grace. So the second meaning of your name is by the grace of God, our wish (for a son) is fulfilled.

Son, for many years, I know that you had been searching for your purpose in life.

I had frequently shared with you of my purpose in life. I shared with you that from young I searched for a meaningful life. To me it is so important that I live a meaningful life. When I found Christ and finally committed my life to Him, I already found the answer to my quest – A meaningful life is to have Jesus.

“To know Christ and to make Him known” is my aspired life vision. I told you that there is no other vision better than this for me. For papa it is the same. Together, when we were married, we also entrusted our lives to God with this goal and claimed this great promise of God in Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be yours as well.” (all the things we need for this life God will provide)

Son, you know that this is for us. But you said you wanted to know God not through our faith. You wanted to experience God yourself and find your life purpose yourself.

Remember we shared this together?

Some wandered in desert wastelands,
finding no way to a city where they could settle.
They were hungry and thirsty,
and their lives ebbed away.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.

He led them by a straight way
to a city where they could settle.
Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for men,
for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things.

Ps 107:4-9

And I thank the Lord for He has heard your cry and my cry.

You had finally come to Jesus and not through our faith, but your own. You surrendered all your burdens to Him as you recorded in your journal:
“I surrender to Jesus- my poverty replace with His rich treasures, all challenging situations with patience and encouragement through God’s love and patience, place my burdens on God’s shoulders, acknowledge His power in my life.”

To me, this is one of the greatest joys for any parents who know Jesus and want their children to know Him, too.

But this is only part of your story, though an important one.

Yours is also a story of love.
You teach us that love is a better way.


You teach us that love is a better way,
not success as men of the world want to see;
not achievements, though many strive with no end;
not riches if you have to toil all your life and miss it;
not praises from men, for God understands what is in a
man.

You teach us that love is a better way-
To love is to love now,
not till your task is over
nor later for an appointment that cannot be missed;
to love is to give now,
not when you have made more;
to love is share now when someone has a need,
not when you are free with no commitments to meet;
to love is to listen now,
no story or dream of another is too boring;
to love is to pass no judgment,
but a word of encouragement;
to love is to be kind and gentle to anyone who comes your
way,
no one is too small or undeserved;
to love is to forgive though sometimes you hurt the most;
to love is to pray for someone who has a pain,
be it a wounded finger, or an unspoken fear;
to love is to share good times and broken dreams;
to love is to enjoy with each other
both the sunshine and the rain,
music of others and your own;
to love is to share your time with people you love -
family or friends,
a meal, a chat, a call, a game, an occasion to celebrate
or just an ordinary day;
to love is to laugh or cry together
over a joke or a hurt that no one seems to understand.

And
again to love is to love now,
when someone is in danger and you to give a helping
hand not counting what it costs;
to love is to give of yourself for the life of others,
by instinct, even to sacrifice your own.
And love has no end.

My dearest son, Zi On, that is you. You have taught us what is
love. And God shines forth in your life because you love.

Today, we celebrate your birthday. We celebrate your life-
a great life -
with sweet remembrance of you, memories, countless and
precious; and with our hearts humbled and touched.

Yes, mama promises: I don’t want to cry today.
It is your birthday and we want to celebrate with joy and thankfulness to God for His special gift to us, a son and brother to cherish and hold; and when it is time God wants to use you, we surrender to His sovereign will.

And we know today, in the presence of God, the angels in heaven celebrate your birthday with you with joyful singing.

HAPPY BRITHDAY Zi On !

Love forever,
Mama together with papa and Zi Lu
14-01-2008