August 31, 2007
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Graveyard Crook
in all my anger i am writing this.
after breakfast with jon, we went for a little drive before he left for church for music practice. we came upon a Christian cemetery. he said his grandfather was buried there. i thought since we were there, so might as well visit his grave.
we were the only mortals on that burial ground, until an indian man appeared behind us. as jon led the way to his grandfather’s grave, the man, wearing only blue jeans and his arms streaked with white paint followed.
initially i thought he wanted to get over to the other side of the graveyard, but i was wrong. he followed us up until we reached the grave. so i thought we was the caretaker. or undertaker. whichever la.
without a word, he proceeded to pull weeds around the grave. i could sense that he was up to something. people just don’t be nice to strangers without expecting anything in return. that’s the harsh reality. of course they are some who really are nice to people they don’t know without any hidden motives, but obviously, not this man.
he then asked us whether we wanted to paint the grave, “mau cat?” and hand gestured to ask us whether we want to dig up or move his grave (what the..) and we said, “no. we are just here to visit.”
not too long after that, we made our way to the exit. he followed us too without a word. when we reached the car, he demanded “Lima.” jon was already at the driver’s seat, he opened his coin compartment and dug up coins. i was still waiting for jon to unlock the car door on the passenger side so that i could get in and be safe from that man.
when he saw that jon was digging coins for him, boy, he was furious.
“jangan main-main, saya jaga tempat sini punya. RM10!”
i was like, what the *toot*.. being really vulnerable outside the car, i didn’t dare to sound too fierce. i said to him, “tadi kata RM5?”
he looked at me with those unfriendly eyes of his and said gruffly, “RM10.”
jon was afraid that we would harm his grandfather’s grave, so he handed him a ten ringgit note.
seriously, i was so so so angry at that man. he doesn’t even own that graveyard! like he’d take care of the grave when we paid him. i thought we could visit in peace, but no, he had to come along and con us. he didn’t even pull ALL the weeds around the grave. and he was rude and disrespectful to us!
we could’ve sped off and ignored the man. but we couldn’t because i was locked out of the car. XD even if he really harms the grave, let him do it. see whether jon’s grandfather’s spirit will deal with him or not. harm and see la. he’d be disrespecting the dead. could be worse than disrespecting mortals.
Lord, how to love our enemies? it’s close to impossible. at first i really thought it was easy, but this morning i realised it’s so so so hard to love someone like that man. but all things are possible, so i believe one day i’d be able to forgive him. but not now.
Comments (4)
I’m sure if the Lord has asked us to, He was sure that it is possible. But for this case, I guess it was inevitable because you should be more concerned about your safety. After all, anyone would have given that amount of money if they’re with a girl… in case lah, kan? But you could try to see if you could get in touch with people who own the place and see if there’s anything they could do.
it’s okie.. at least no one got hurt.=) i rather lose money than risk your safety. let God deal with him, it’s not for us to decide.
what he did was just pull weeds half-heartedly around the grave. my lawn oso bigger than the grave laaa, my polite grass cutter guy deserves RM10 million times more than him!
why didn’t we ram him down.
believe it or not, it’s quite a standard practice in cemeteries and the not-so-famous memorial parks. think of it from a different perspective — people are desperate. We don’t really know what his background is and what he’s been through and how other ppl could have caused him to be the person he is now. he’s not your enemy. he’s a man who’s desperate and angry thus resorting to this form of “deception” to fill his stomach for the day.
No, it’s not easy to love our enemies. But it helps when we look at them through Jesus’ eyes and ask Him for His compassion for His people. We sang “people need the Lord” right? indeed they do.
On a more practical side, in future occasions, be alert and just tell them “no, thank you”. It’s similar to the restaurants that gives nuts and the wet towels even when we didn’t ask for it and then charge us later. Just tell them no, and return it as soon as they place it on the table.
life’s like that, eh?
still, God is good and life is beautiful..