Each of my classmates still recalls the day we had a taste of the cane. It happened in the mid sixties when parents would be happy if their children were caned for correction in school, and you would dare not talk about it at home else there could be more caning from your parents. Complaints about or to the school? What is that? It never happened in those days. On that day, our form teacher was sick and we had a fun time, so much so that the noise level reached the Headmaster’s (Principal) office. We were immediately quiet when we saw Mr G Singh walked across the basketball court with his long scary disciplinary tool. He said that we were like mice dancing and screaming when the cat is not around. When form teacher, Mr Lim was not around, it was out of sight, out of mind so far as our discipline was concerned. 

As Christians, sometimes we feel too that God is absent. There are so many prayer requests that we put forward to God, but He seems so quiet that our prayers appear to be in vain. At best our ways are mediocre as we can only see from a human perspective. We are unable to have a helicopter view and our knowledge of what happens in the future is but guess work. Who would know that some of our modern useful inventions can be so harmful when used improperly. Nuclear energy can be the most efficient power but it can be extremely destructive too. Often times we become impatient and do things the way we think best without waiting for God’s answers. No time, we say! Thank God He always has time for each of us. Abraham could not wait for a son, so he had Ishmael with Hagar. He had an excuse. He was old and had “no time”. This folly caused endless quarrels which continue till today. Though Abraham was a prophet, as a man, he could see no further than anyone of us. How would Abraham have guessed the problems and misery he brought to his descendants through one of his own decisions without God? 

Some would be slothful and think that since there is no one around, we can do what we want with the talents that God blesses us with. The Parable of the Talents (Matt 25:14-29) tells us clearly that there is reward for the useful application of our talents and punishment for wasting our talents. When we are working for the Lord we would be diligent. Our aim is to please the Lord. He is present. He knows who the faithful servant is. He will see and hear all that we do or say. Yes, he also hears our unfruitful selfish quarrels and gossip. Aaron and his sister Miriam were talking and expressing their unhappiness of Moses. They were punished because God heard their unfair and unwarranted comments about their own brother. “And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it” (Num 12:2). 

Adam and Eve could never have imagined that the fruit they took caused the human race to be driven out of paradise. All this happened because in their hearts, they thought they could do what they liked since God was out of sight. God may be out of sight to us but we are never out of His sight. We may feel that God is absent from us but we are always present in His circle of care and concern. He never leaves us alone. 

Mice misbehave when the cat is not around. Humans are no different. We do whatever we like defying the very God who created us. We have all theories on our existence. Some people are so sure that we come from monkeys that they speak as though their immediate parents are monkeys. They are so convincing in their write ups that it appears that they were present when life first began millions of years or should it be billions of years now (as we grow a little older, this figure seems like increases by the billion that nobody keeps count). God clearly states that He created Adam as the first man, yet many choose to believe the theory of evolution. To them God is absent just because they do not see Him physically. They blindly choose to ignore the environment that God asks us to observe. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Rom 1:20-21). 

We should be like the Philippians. They behaved and obeyed what Paul instructed them to do. Paul was pleased when he wrote Philippians 2:12 “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

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