Reflections on Malachi

Malachi 1:2
"I have loved you," says the LORD.

Even as God sent his prophet Malachi to deliver a very stern rebuke to them on their ingratitude, the Lord starts off by saying He loves His chosen people.

This jumped out at me because it shows that the motivation of God is His love for us. It was out of His love that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, down to die for us that we may live and have life everlasting - because of Jesus' sacrifice and His resurrection.

Love also motivated God to create us - the only ones created in His image - so that we could have a personal relationship with Him. God is a God of relationships.

I, for one, find it very hard to develop new friendships or relationships even though I'm friendly. I can be extremely shy at times and hide that aspect of me behind a mask of aloofness.

On a day when I was in charge of the team, I overheard someone saying that she always smiled at the person but the person is always black-faced. I think she could have referring to me. Usually when I'm in charge, I'm more stressed out than usual and I've a lot of things on my mind. I frown when I'm thinking, I frown when I'm checking, I frown when I'm going through a story, I frown when I'm trying to keep to the deadline etc. So I tend to carry this perpetual frown on my face.

In the light of that, I would need to be more aware of how I come across to people. I could be perceived as being highly unfriendly.

I would also need to be more aware of the people around me, and be more sensitive to them. It is not good if people perceive me, a Christian, as being unfriendly and unapproachable.

I want people to see Christ in me, and having a constant frown is not going to help at all in that area. A friend remarked that I've got a permanent frown line running down the middle of my forehead.

Well, I think it's time I worked more on the smiles and the laugh lines.