Blessing in Disguise

On Monday night, after shepherds' meet, Hsien Juen, Tian Li, Hang and I encountered an incident at the neighbourhood coffee shop.


I was seated and casually conversing with HJ who was standing, queuing to buy her supper, when a middle-aged man walking behind her accidentally tripped over her foot, as she just so happened to turn slightly while talking with me.

The tiny mistake resulted in a dramatic fall and harsh smack of the old man's face against the concrete floor, to the shock of all the onlookers - including us.

We were all stunned and at a loss of what to do. He winced while holding on to his left cheek, clearly in sheer pain. I had never witnessed an old man express such physical pain and agony in my life before. The thought of calling the ambulance flashed across my mind for a split second. We expressed wanting to carry him up again, but he motioned his arms away, as he was still in too much pain to get up. More onlookers gathered, in similar concern. Eventually, some people who knew him, appearing to be his friends or relatives working in the coffee shop, came to the scene and soon two younger men helped carry him up.

He was still struggling with the pain left by the impact on his face even as he was lifted up to his feet. I can still remember the intense expression of writhing pain he gave as I recall the memory.

One of the adults asked us what happened. Afraid they might jump to the conclusion that HJ was the one at fault, I plainly explained that it was a matter of pure accident unlucky timing, in my poor broken Chinese. The man nodded lightly, with a concerned and serious face.

An aunty who just joined the scene began droning, about how "he is already 50-plus years old, and sick, and close to the grave soon, and he still falls down now..." I honestly have no idea who she is telling off right now, but that the time I thought she was giving us girls a telling off, in which later on when I clarified w HJ she told me she thought it was directed to the old man. Oh well.

He appeared to be slightly vexed while attending to his now bruised cheek, while the four of us remained looking worried and concerned for his face. While attending to him, something shiny on the black sling bag he was carrying suddenly caught my eye. It was a crystal studded cross brooch. A moment later, one of his friends, another uncle, suddenly remarked in Chinese, "Let it go, after all, they also worship the same Jesus as you!" I brightened up and nodded my face encouragingly. HJ and the rest looked at one another and asked me, "How did he know?" We weren't wearing anything that would imply that we are Christ followers.

After some moments of waiting for him to recover from the pain, he eventually let the issue go and walked away. HJ had already apologised by then (I wasn't sharp enough to hear it myself but I'm certain she did).

We were still left with the same worry and concern for the uncle, nonetheless. Then I received a prompting from the Holy Spirit, to initiate to pray for the uncle for his injury. I nudged HJ, suggested the idea and she readily obliged to do it. We then walked back to the uncle, approached him, and asked if we could pray for him (it was HJ who really initiated it though, thank God for you girl!). I saw him respond in shied happiness for the first time and he said "Okay, okay" in Chinese. HJ then began worrying about her inadequacy in Chinese haha "eh how ah my Chinese like cannot make it how do I pray in Chinese?" and another uncle (presumably the old man's friend, and a believer, too) sitting at the same table of the old man began telling us off, asking us in Chinese, "Are you girls Singaporeans? Don't know how to speak Chinese?..." To which, the old man defended us, by waving him off, signalling him to shush.

Such an act of love, not denying us to pray even when we seem to be horribly unequipped in our command of Chinese, even when there was an apparent distinction between his generation's culture and ours... even when we were the unintentional 'culprits' of his injury inflicted on him even at such a matured age, he could still garner the love to defend us and our hearts to pray for him...

Looking back, I could really see a tangible glimpse of Christ's love for him, and for us. Even more strongly so as Hsien Juen began leading the prayer of healing for the old man. It didn't matter that her Chinese sounded awkward, or broken. The sincerity in her heart and words got to my heart and I could sense even more the Holy Spirit surrounding us in that very moment, responding to the prayer in Love and showering His blessings of healing upon the man. And I was sure the prayer moved the old man's heart too.

I couldn't make sense of it then, but I began to tear during the prayer, and increasingly so after it had ended. It took me the entire night to reflect and think about why I was moved, what moved me to tears (to the extent that I fell asleep while being tired from tearing and sobbing at home - which explains the delay of this post - HAHA), and even after I fell asleep, I still couldn't pinpoint the exact reason. But now I sum it down to two reasons: God's Love for the man sensed during prayer, the realisation of the beauty of the Kairos moment while we were praying for the man - that God is really in control and behind all these sequence of events - just so we can step out of our comfort zones to pray and bless a stranger old man's heart, and the fatherly love of the old man for us, despite subtly, when he defended his friend's remarks to us.

And also how he didn't choose to scold us off even ONCE, when he clearly had the right to do so. He could very easily blame it on HJ's carelessness. He could very easily have created a huge commotion out of this incident. He could have very well left us feeling 10 times worse about ourselves, guiltier, even more apologetic about the accident. But he didn't. He didn't put the blame on us, and that lack of action was an action of love.

My prayer from this event is for the man to really, really have a good speedy recovery enabled by the Lord. And also for us girls to glean from the beautiful acts demonstrated by this stranger, who knows that Love is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrongs (1 Corinthians 13:5), and lives it out in his life.

Perhaps God intended this accident to not just be an accident, but for those involved and witnessing, a blessing in disguise.