Getting down to work with meetings at the Karolinska Institute.

It snowed very lightly yesterday evening in Stockholm, which was quite pretty, and very cold.

I nearly killed (and cryogenically preserved, or are the two mutually exclusive ?) myself in the shower this morning by accidentally turning the hot-cold knob to "cold", instead of the on-off knob to "off".

We leave our hotel for DC in an hour’s time.

The trip did not start off well.

We arrived late in Stockholm - almost 20 hours after departure from Singapore (including waiting time at transit) - partly because our plane arrived late at Frankfurt and caused us to miss the connecting flight at Frankfurt. 

And then there was this merry-go-round at Frankfurt where, because I had walked out of the wrong exit, I could not collect my luggage for check it into the connecting flight.  So after exiting the airport (ie. entering Frankfurt), I had to re-enter the airport (got my passport stamped to leave Frankfurt), exit the airport from the correct exit (got my passport stamped to enter Frankfurt), collect my luggage, check it into the connecting flight, and re-enter the airport (got my passport stamped again to leave Frankfurt).  The second time I exited the airport the immigration officer scrutinised my passport probably on the suspicion that I was a terrorist or illegal immigrant; I was half expecting security to turn up and taser me on the spot.

It was almost hilarious if not for the fact that I could have missed (and in fact very nearly missed) the connecting flight to Stockholm.  Anyway, we finally made it, and here a couple of shots of Stockholm city.

Our swanky hotel

Streets of Stockholm Old Town (Gamla Stan)

I won’t say Stockholm is terribly exciting (based on what I’ve seen so far).  In fact it looks absolutely dreary in the day time because the sky is dull and grey.  But it is getting quite pretty when dark as it’s close to Christmas; Christmas decorations are starting to come up, and the streets seem to turn to gold when reflecting the light off their damp surfaces.

I have not been writing my devotional thoughts lately, because I have very few.  This is partly because the busyness of life has made it difficult to "tune in" to God.  Partly also I continue to struggle with disappointments of the past.

Because I struggle with disappointments, I have also been thinking of my shared experiences with friends from previous churches and the present one, friends with whom I have experienced the grace of Christ and the brokeness of His church, and praying for them.

The Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13 : 1 - 23) reminds me that faith can be so fragile.  Like a seed, it can be snatched away by birds before it can take root.  Like a fledging plant, it can wither under the heat, or be choked by weeds.

I ask that God watch over our fragile faiths.

A couple of weeks ago I met a friend from one of my earlier previous churches, whom I had not met for a long time.  Interestingly, he pointed out that (as far as he knew) no one who had left our previous church (which sort of fell apart), had left the faith because their negative experiences.

About a week later I happened to bump into another friend from that previous church, and discovered that she had become the wife of a pastor, and a key member of a Christian voluntary welfare organisation.  A week after that, I "found" another lost friend from that previous church on Facebook, who shared with me her desire to leave her stressful job so that she could devote more time to ministry in her new church.

It seems that God is watching over us, even more closely than we can ask or imagine.

I thank God every time I remember you … being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

- Philippians 1 : 3, 6

We celebrated Jed’s second birthday on Saturday.  We’ve been parents for two years which, looking back, is quite awesome.  Who would have thought that we’d come this far ?

By the grace of God, we’re guilty of hurting Jed only twice.  Once by dropping him under a restaurant table (Joyce’s fault) and another time by allowing him to scald his hand (Joyce would say this is my fault, but I beg to differ).  Happily, we have a clean record when it comes to keeping Jed on (instead of rolling off) the bed. 

Jed also seems to be a reasonably well-adjusted kid.  Comfortable with new people.  Affectionate to his caregivers but not overly clingy.

I’ve probably mentioned this elsewhere, but parenting has been a humbling experience.  There is probably no other time in your life when you get peed, poohed or puked on (unless you have a festish for that kind of thing), are made to sing kiddy songs over and over again, sometimes in public (as you rock him to sleep), or feel so helpless because you don’t know what is wrong with or how to soothe a grumpy baby who can’t speak to tell you why he’s upset.

I also better understand what it means to approach the Heavenly Father like a child (though I am a long way off from doing so).  Jed depends on us totally for his needs, and approaches us for help when he has a problem (reaching his biscuits for example), fully trusting that we would take reasonable care of im.  He wakes up, and his cereal and milk appear.  He poops, and his diapers are changed.  He is upset or frightened, and someone comes to hug and console him. 

I think this is what our relationship with God should ideally be like.  I long for it.  But in our imperfect world which many times glorifies self-reliance and the survival of the fittest to excess, it is easy to forget what it means to be a child.  It is always tempting to rely entirely on oneself, than on an unseen God.

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." (Luke 18 : 16 - 17)