Happy Birthday, Chris

Christopher always gives pleasant surprises. On the eve of his 14th birthday, I ran through my blog to collect some of the words that he has shared in my blog. Yes, I am not able to celebrate his birthday with him this time - probably, the first time in his 14 years?

But, I am blessed to have a record of his wisdom to read tonight!

On memories, he says,

“If you choose to remember the good memories you will always remember, if you choose to forget the bad things, you will forget.”

About name, he writes -

I have a name that is beautiful and bright. It sounds great. My Chinese name is Lau Ker Liang. Lau is my family name. Ker is in “ke-yi” in Chinese. That means “yes” or “ok” or “can be”. “Liang” as in “ming-liang” in Chinese. That means “bright” or “clear”, “Liang” is also in “yue-liang” in Chinese. It is moon.

Is it not bright?

My English name, Christopher was given by my sister. I think she likes “Christopher Robin” in Winnie the Pooh. It is a long name. My mother said when I was small, the longest word I knew was “Elephant”. Christopher is even longer than elephant. So, I said my name is “Elephant Lau”.

On his mummy, he writes -

Mummy is my alarm clock. She is an alarm clock that never fails… When mummy is not at home, I have to put two alarm clocks and my handphone at my bedside. The handphone is for my mummy to telephone me at 5:30 am. I always sleep through the alarm clock, but the telephone ring always wakes me up. The telephone ring means mummy calling!

On his most-loved grandfather who went back to the Lord almost five years ago, he writes -

Gong-gong, I know it is more than a house in heaven, it is home of Jesus. I know you are singing happily there with a better karoke-system than the one at home. But, why do I still want you here?

On watching Narnia, he writes -

Watching Narnia is a wonderful adventure. I imagine myself to be one of the four children, Peter, Susan, Edmind and Lucy…. I told mummy that my heart melt when Aslan dies for Edmund. It is like the death of Jesus for you and me and all mankind.

What a friend we have in Jesus!

Chris says it is okay to be different,

I think because we are different, it makes life more interesting. What if my sister and me look exactly the same? Mummy and daddy will have a hard time. They don’t know who likes noodles and who likes rice!

Chris has great sense of humour and is able to laugh at himself,

Yesterday, I went to the Family Christmas Party of my mummy’s colleagues. When the “game master” asked for some male participants in the first game, I was the first one to stand up. I ended by making a fool of myself. The game was to dress up as a “Miss Santa” and be judged as “Miss Santa”.

The moral of the story is always know what you are heading before you jump into it.

Chris shares jokes with her sister, Rachel. He takes Rachel’s jokes too, here is one,

My sister overheard this at the Pizza Hut counter yesterday.

“You want to cut your pizza into six pieces or four pieces?” The girl at the counter asked the customer.

The customer answered, “Four pieces. I can’t finish six pieces.”

Chris has his child-likeness too, this is one incident,

Yesterday, at the check-out counter of a bookshop, Chris rushed to the counter and asked if he could buy another book. I took a look and said, “That’s a kindergarten book.” He said, “It’s okay to be kindergarten sometimes.”

On the month of August, he wrote his thoughts when he was only 10,

I want to fly a flag also on my mother’s car. I think it is so nice to see the flags flying. But, my mother does not like the idea. She says flying flags does not really show a person’s love for the country. True enough. this morning we just passed by a small car with more than 10 flags flying high. They overtook us and the passengers popped out their heads and showed monkey faces to us.

So, I think the flag really flies in our hearts.

We went to the church cleaning this morning. It was a spring cleaning. I see many uncles and aunties happily cleaning the church. I think I see the flags flying in every corner of my church.

I used to like August very much. Why? Because on the first day of the month, it is my birthday, in the middle of August it is my grandfather’s birthday, then on the last day of the month, it is my country’s birthday. There have been a reason to celebrate on 1st, 15th and 31st. But, my grandfather went back to the home of the Lord last year. Now, August has become a month with a reason to remember my grandfather on the 1st, 15th and 31st.

I remember. I listen. I watch. I learn. I see. I feel. I move. I smell. I touch. I love. I run. I jump. I yell. I sing. I dance. I am not a great person. Malaysia is my country. I am one small star. But, my mother says that’s wonderful too.

Yes, son, Happy Birthday!