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Purpose of Life
By peace | August 23, 2007
Today the Holy Communion gathering session was nothing much. It was a very short session. On arrival, we saw a piece of round bread at the centre of the room. As usual, those present consists of the children and parents from the previous Monday’s session.
The session starts with an opening prayer and the next thing was the children were asked to break off a piece of bread from the whole loaf of bread. They were not supposed to eat it, but just to hold it in their hands. After the children had their bread, it was the parents’ turn to take their bread. Some adult took a small piece and some tore off a big piece. All returned to their usual seat after that. After the adults were all seated, the children and adults were asked to put back all their bread back to make the whole loaf of bread a perfect piece of bread again. It was of course not perfect loaf anymore. There were some pieces that seem to fix back at the usual position of the bread, but there were still some which do not fix at all. Some even fallen off from where it was placed. The children were told to think of some solution or ideas to make the bread as complete as possible.
For quite some time, the children stood around the bread, giggling and ‘poking’ at the bread. Some just watched. For a while, nothing seem to happen at all. Some guidance was given, and the children worked together later on. Ultimately, the whole loaf of bread seem to be more perfect than usual and the children were asked to sit down again.
The children were asked what they were thinking when they were putting the pieces of bread together. The children were very shy. It was very hard to hear anything from them. After probing and ‘digging’, ultimately some answers include, “thinking of nothing”, “thinking for answers” and “don’t know”. Some of the interesting answers given by the children on how to fix the bread together again was to use needles, glue and to burn it.
What is your role in the community
The next question which the children need to answer was “What is your role in the community?”. The answers were to care for one another, to help one another and to be God’s shepherd. After the children, the adults had to answer the same question. The adults answers include showing examples to children, guiding children, helping each other in the community and caring for each other in the community. After that we refer to the Bible, Colossians 3:12-15, which is:
Character of the New Man
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. (This is Colossians 3:16-17 which was not read but I thought it was a good continuation)
With that, we end our session for the day and we said the closing prayer and all of us go in peace.
What I learn from today’s sharing session is actually the quite the same as the first session. It is always about helping each other, caring for each other and this will help to make a perfect community (just like the piece of bread). The bread is the community. If there is no communication, no sharing among one another, it is very hard to make the bread perfect again, because we do not know what the other people is thinking. It is only through communication, sharing of ideas, and ultimately helping and working out that we can find solution for our problems — making a perfect community. And the qualities of people? How should we lead our life so as to play a part in making a perfect community since every one has different opinions and different views towards anything, just like fixing the bread back together? From Colossians, we learned that we practice love and kindness, patience and endurance, forgiveness for each other.
May we open our heart to God. Where there is room for God, you will have peace. God is love. Where there is love, there is patience, kindness and forgiveness. Where there is love, there is peace. When you have peace, you can feel God’s presence. Give thanks to God for all that we have and for all that he has given us. It is only through life’s unhappiness that we learn to appreciate what is happiness. It is only through losing that we learn what is gain and we learn how to appreciate. This is all the power of God to enable us to learn. It is through experience that we learn best and remember best.
So what is your role in this world, our community? Perhaps this is our purpose of life — helping each other, caring for each other and trying to make this world a better place to live in ( a perfect rounded community like the bread!).
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