Well, Amy and I have been enjoying our first Christmas season as a married couple. I have been a little amazed at how much decoration and Christmas music I have heard so far. I did not think that Thailand would celebrate Christmas at all because it is 95% Buddhist, but the retail stores have seen the sales potential and so marketed a holiday no one knows anything about. Instead of "Merry Christmas", banners saying "Happy Gift Season" and "Festive Cheer" drape the entry ways of most stores. Interestingly enough, the Christmas music playing through the stores are the great carols declaring Christ's worth and deity.
In America all we hear are modern Christmas songs that attempt to separate the event from Christ's life, like "Jingle Bells", "Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer" and "Winter Wonderland". I guess when no one knows about Christ you don't need to write new songs to take him out of Christmas.
Because of my frustration with all of this, on Sunday I shared a sermon entitled "Finding the Heart of Christmas." The main point was that the event of Christmas reveals the character of God in a way that no other event ever could or ever will. Mary realized this in her song recorded in Luke 1. She declared God's love, compassion, mercy and justice. These attributes were not merely a cold doctrine that she mentally grasped; they were a revelation that established a pattern by which she lived her life. Thank God that his character was such that it is clearly communicated in the Christmas events.
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