Planning for Prosperity

The next few days in Singapore will be the beginning of the Chinese New Year

For several days before the eve of Chinese New Year, Chinese housewives clean and redecorate their homes and shop for waxed duck, Chinese Sausages, mandarin oranges and traditional cakes. They will not sweep during the first few days of the new year because they might sweep out the good luck. Each food eaten has special significance for luck. Red paper scrolls bearing good luck verses in Chinese are posted all over the house.

It is believed that the first few days of the New Year will effect the rest of the year. So everything is done to insure a prosperous future. What you do and how you act during the period is crucial in determining how the rest of your year will go. So, eating the right foods, such as black moss seaweed, which is a homonym for exceeding in wealth, and dried bean curd, which is another homonym for fulfillment of wealth and happiness, is a must.

Officially the holiday lasts for three days, but Singaporeans often take the entire week off from work to celebrate, visiting relatives and friends. Everything has to be just right to set the stage for an auspicious New Year.

A Chinese New Year's Eve feast doubles as a family reunion, bringing people from all corners of the world back home. Meals are decadent with a spread of symbolically lucky foods Hong bao, or red envelopes stuffed with money, are passed out to the younger folk as a an auspicious start for a prosperous new year.

In the Bible, Peter also spoke of things that will insure a Christian will be spiritually prosperous. Like the Chinese New Year, a little house cleaning and what we nourish ourselves with become important.

1 Peter 2:1-17
Peter call us all to a life of holiness (cleaning up our spiritual house) and love in 1 Peter 1:13-25. Verse 23 mentions being born again or born anew. "New borns" must grow into maturity. Much of a parent's responsibility lies in nurturing and creating an environment for this growth to occur.

Peter begins by assuming that his readers are like newborn babies. Most newborns are passive about everything but getting their nourishment. They enthusiastically go after milk. Peter relates this enthusiasm for nourishment to a new Christian's desire for spiritual nourishment that will lead to growth in Christ.

That nourishment is pure, spiritual milk. The word milk is part of the figure of speech that goes with newborns. The word pure is genuine - not thinned down milk and refers to the Word of God.

Since you have already tasted and discovered that the Lord is good, the command to long for more spiritual nourishment should be an easy command to obey. The fact that Peter talked about desiring the word in verse 2 and tasting the Lord in verse 3 reminds us that this growth is in our relationship with Christ.

I wonder how many of us are as enthusiastic about the pursuit of God as the Chinese are about the pursuit of good luck. Our reward is not prosperity for a year, but life eternal. Are we willing to do a little personal house cleaning to insure a life of holiness? Do we have that hunger for the word like new born babies craving milk?