Tombsweeping Weekend (weeks ago...)

For those of you who are not familiar with Chinese traditions, tombsweeping is a time when chinese people remember their relatives/ancestors who have passed away by visiting them at their burial site, or where their ashes are kept after cremation. As a Christian, I used to struggle with going to such events because I am asked to hold joss sticks and bow to my ancestors. I shall not write to much about the Christian principles and all behind all this, but I shall just say that I am quite ok going to such things now. It's part of respecting and honoring my parents that I go with them. My dad knows that I am a christian and going to these events won't change the fact that I am a Christian. As long as he understands, I'm totally fine going to such things. In fact, tombsweeping has become a yearly family event where the 2 families get together and spend some time together, which is quite nice... =)
Just wanted to write abt something I saw at the cemetery... when we were at my grandmother's tomb, I looked over my shoulder and saw another family who was at this old lady's tomb. The family members were busy laying out the food, joss sticks and all. Then, I noticed slightly further away from the tomb was an old man... he was almost bald, wore a pair of dark rimmed glasses... think he must be around 75 years old or so... he was just standing silently at the side and weeping. His eyes were fixed on the old lady's picture and he was brushing his tears away... =( I presume that the old lady was his wife.. When I saw him weeping, I felt so so sad for him... losing your best friend, companion, partner at this age must be really tough on him. I can only imagine the loneliness that he has to go through now. It was so sad... Even though as a Christian, I know that this life is but temporal... we have eternity to look forward to in heaven with God, I can't help but feel sadness at the thought of losing a loved one... As christians, we should be secure about our future, that we will see our loved ones again in heaven. I think the toughest part is the thought of not being able to see our loved ones who are not believers... in times like these, we can only trust that God is sovereign over all things.
There's a family in church who got involved with a car/train accident in California last year and they shared about it over the Easter service. It's quite amazing to see how they can praise God despite the fact that her father got paralyzed as a result of the accident. Her father also went up to share about his own experience. And it was so encouraging to see how they drew strength from God day by day and simply trusted in God's character and faithfulness. It doesn't mean that they know for sure her father will be healed completely, it also doesn't mean that they are happy clappy abt the episode, but it's the trust and faith that God is in control and sovereign over the whole situation despite the fact that things may look gloomy at the moment. And they are able to do this because they know that they have an eternal hope in CHrist. It's so tough, there are many times when I ask myself how I will react when such things happen to me or the loved ones around me? Will I be able to say that God is good? Will I be able to praise God and be joyful for what He has given me still? Will I be able to trust that God is sovereign over all things? Will I lost my faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ? It's really hard to say how we will react in times of tragedies when we haven't experienced them ourselves... Many times, people swing to either extremes in face of bad things: love God and trust God even more through the difficulties, or lose faith in God altogether... I hope and pray that God will be gracious and that I will respond rightly by loving and trusting God even more through difficulties..