Growing up in a small town in Perak and despite studying in a missionary school, I must admit that I was not really exposed to Christian faith when I was growing up. I was brought up in a home with a mix of Taoism and later Buddhism practices. As many other Chinese households, we worshipped to all kinds of supposedly "heavenly idols" from outside of house all the way to the back of house i.e. kitchen. Not only that, we also pray to the photo or urns containing the ashes of ancestors, and all these are done with purpose of seeking blessing and protections.
I also remember when anyone in the family had any abnormal illness, my parents would bring the family member to seek advice and hearings from those Chinese mediums in the temples. As you probably know, these are people who claimed to be the "agent" for spiritual powers and they usually conducted their "consultations" by going into a trance state, finishing with some charm/talisman for the inquiring person. Despite all these consultations with mediums and idols worshipping, I really didn't feel that my family was blessed in anyway, we were still living in poverty and as far as I can remember, there was not much of peace during my childhood.
As I went into secondary school and became slightly more educated, I started to develop an curiosity to learn about Buddhism probably because of the influence of my friends who were mostly members of the Buddhist Society in my school. I was even told that Buddhism was the "most scientific" religion in the world, and was the right way compared to Taoism practices which were viewed as superstitious. I don't remember exactly how long I persisted but maybe after 2 years, I had to admit that Buddhism to me was an extremely complicating belief, not only I was not able to understand what Buddha said about life and universe, I also realised it was simply impossible for humans to attain the "Perfect" path which seems unnatural to me e.g. cannot kill/eat living life, total suppression of your desires to achieve perfection, reincarnation etc.
Later as I finished my high school and had more opportunities to travel to more places, I always marvelled at the beauty of natural scenery. I realised no matter which part of the world you live, there will always be some natural wonders, from beaches, coral reef, rain forests, oasis, waterfalls, snow capped mountains, colours of autumn, to even northern lights in Arctic circle. I started to believe that all these cannot come together naturally or by accidence but they are put in place for our enjoyment by the Creator of this universe. I started to see the fingerprint of the Creator everywhere and I know whoever finds this Creator, he/she will come to know the real God.
Do you see God's fingerprint in all pictures below? God bless you.
