Looking around, even in Malaysia, there is a vast range of designs, motifs, or architecture, that one can associate immediately typically to a certain group of people. And we haven’t even stepped outside to our neighbouring countries such as Thailand, much less around the world! Even so, these designs have many factors that decide them; time, place, or incidents form a complex concoction in a designer’s mind to create what we see today. If only we knew the wonderful mysteries of our cultures and world.
Recently an Australian friend came by to Malaysia for a visit, and he noticed little bulbs on Muslim gravestones. When he asked us why they were there, all we could answer was what we learnt in Form 4 (before the syllabus got ‘amended’), which was Muslims do not use nature of any form in their designs, simply symmetrical shapes to symbolize balance and order. This hardly seems like a satisfying answer, especially when we see them everywhere, mosques, the gravestones as my friend observed, and even on pictures on the wall. But for us, we have become so accustomed to it that we do not stop to think of its origins and purpose. For whatever reason behind it, we have been neutralized, or in fact westernized, by education, media, or modern thinking. These customs and symbols do not matter to us anymore, and we live for the here and now only, for our own selfish purposes.
It does seem like a more reasonable way of life, to let the past be past, and live towards our future. But what this modern thinking fails to carry is the character and substance of the past, the lessons learnt, the hard work and intimate process of creating what is truly interesting, detailed, precise, and beautiful.
Take for example a Minangkabau palace I used to visit while I was younger. I do not remember much of its history or culture, but what I do remember is that no nails were used at all in its entire construction. This does not seem like an unachievable feat since many buildings can boast the same, but at that time, to have such engineering prowess is the equivalent to Dubai’s Burj Al Arab or the Taipei 101 of today. The fact that a palace with no nails can stand, or a single 100-storey building can rise is something one can only wonder in awe.
Maybe I’m ignorant, and I definitely know I’m old school, but I somehow still think the more time you intentionally spend on something, the more you will love and regard it. No matter if it were back then, or now on this day, in Negeri Sembilan or Dubai, what the designer designs, his reasons behind its creation, his purpose of his creation, his constant thoughts and improvements to his creation; these only prove how he loves his work and his creations. As I mentioned of the past, the lessons learnt, the hard work and intimate process of creating what is beautiful, is in itself beautiful.
And we already know who the Grand Master Designer is, and what is His masterpiece is. Scientists and researchers can imitate or manipulate life, but God Himself can create, and give, Life.
God is pleased with His creation, as He “looked over all He had made, and saw that it was very good!” (Gen. 1:31). And more than that, God actually created us for His pleasure, for He “created everything, and it is for [His] pleasure that they exist and were created” (Rev. 4:11). And even more still, God created us for a purpose, as “God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure” (Eph 1:5).
Our Creator and Master is beyond time, space, and understanding. We might not see the details He made in us as interesting, or precise, or even beautiful. But why should we be angry at our Maker? When we love and create something, do we deliberately create in it faults and flaws?
“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
And knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
As I was woven together in the dark of the womb.”
Psalms 139:13-15
How we are designed is interesting, precise, and beautiful in God’s eyes. And we know that God is our highest authority, and more importantly, makes no mistakes in His creation.
Recently an Australian friend came by to Malaysia for a visit, and he noticed little bulbs on Muslim gravestones. When he asked us why they were there, all we could answer was what we learnt in Form 4 (before the syllabus got ‘amended’), which was Muslims do not use nature of any form in their designs, simply symmetrical shapes to symbolize balance and order. This hardly seems like a satisfying answer, especially when we see them everywhere, mosques, the gravestones as my friend observed, and even on pictures on the wall. But for us, we have become so accustomed to it that we do not stop to think of its origins and purpose. For whatever reason behind it, we have been neutralized, or in fact westernized, by education, media, or modern thinking. These customs and symbols do not matter to us anymore, and we live for the here and now only, for our own selfish purposes.
It does seem like a more reasonable way of life, to let the past be past, and live towards our future. But what this modern thinking fails to carry is the character and substance of the past, the lessons learnt, the hard work and intimate process of creating what is truly interesting, detailed, precise, and beautiful.
Take for example a Minangkabau palace I used to visit while I was younger. I do not remember much of its history or culture, but what I do remember is that no nails were used at all in its entire construction. This does not seem like an unachievable feat since many buildings can boast the same, but at that time, to have such engineering prowess is the equivalent to Dubai’s Burj Al Arab or the Taipei 101 of today. The fact that a palace with no nails can stand, or a single 100-storey building can rise is something one can only wonder in awe.
Maybe I’m ignorant, and I definitely know I’m old school, but I somehow still think the more time you intentionally spend on something, the more you will love and regard it. No matter if it were back then, or now on this day, in Negeri Sembilan or Dubai, what the designer designs, his reasons behind its creation, his purpose of his creation, his constant thoughts and improvements to his creation; these only prove how he loves his work and his creations. As I mentioned of the past, the lessons learnt, the hard work and intimate process of creating what is beautiful, is in itself beautiful.
And we already know who the Grand Master Designer is, and what is His masterpiece is. Scientists and researchers can imitate or manipulate life, but God Himself can create, and give, Life.
God is pleased with His creation, as He “looked over all He had made, and saw that it was very good!” (Gen. 1:31). And more than that, God actually created us for His pleasure, for He “created everything, and it is for [His] pleasure that they exist and were created” (Rev. 4:11). And even more still, God created us for a purpose, as “God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure” (Eph 1:5).
Our Creator and Master is beyond time, space, and understanding. We might not see the details He made in us as interesting, or precise, or even beautiful. But why should we be angry at our Maker? When we love and create something, do we deliberately create in it faults and flaws?
“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
And knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
As I was woven together in the dark of the womb.”
Psalms 139:13-15
How we are designed is interesting, precise, and beautiful in God’s eyes. And we know that God is our highest authority, and more importantly, makes no mistakes in His creation.
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