Left: 40 foot Christmas tree at shopping mall, Chiangmai; Top Right: It could well be a display in Los Angeles, but this is in Chiangmai, Thailand; Second Right:Christmas decorations hang on every floor; Third Right: Snoopy and Santa together at the mall; Bottom Right: Snoopies and Christmas Trees at a Thailand Mall
It is that obnoxious season of the year again. Santa Clause is depicted in every shopping mall. Everywhere you look, there are those fake evergreen trees with red and silver balls hanging on them and sometimes a plastic angel perched on top. And then there is that maddening music. If I hear Jingle Bells one more time, I am going to scream!
…And by the way, I am talking about Thailand, not Los Angeles or Dallas. It is now all over Thailand, too.
Why does a largely Buddhist country have anything to do with Christmas? Sometimes because of my white beard and mustache, little Thai children come up to me at this time of year, point to me and say, “Santa Craw, Santa Craw.”
The god of this world is doing a very successful job of blinding people to the real story about Christmas. Even Buddhist Thailand is infected with the lie that will not die – that December 25 is the day on which Jesus was born. Actually the Buddhist Thais do not care when Jesus was born since they do not worship Him as Lord. So why do they have the music, Santas and all the decorations in the shopping malls?
Money! Christmas is just one more marketing opportunity. It is much the same in the West. Most could care less about the supposed message of Christmas. They are interested in presents, clothing, family get-togethers and parties. So now this cancer of Christmas is even infecting non Christian countries like Thailand.
The marketers are very clever. One can find bright flashing lights everywhere, and The Jolly Fat Man in red is Ho ho ho-ing inside and outside all shopping malls and department stores. Here in Thailand, they pal Jolly Old Santa up with Snoopy or Mickey Mouse or some other cartoon character, so that if the little Thai kids do not know who Santa Craws is, they will certainly know Snoopy or Mickey. Then, of course there are lots and lots of striped candies and reindeer shaped cookies to lure the little kids into asking their parents for more and more and more. They are very clever indeed, these marketing gurus.
I get fed up quickly with the great LIE of Christmas. It appeals to our physical senses and our intellect. It looks good, sounds good, makes sense that it must be a good thing, even if God hates it.
Remember the Garden:
Gen 3:6
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
My father hated lies and despised liars. I remember when I was about 5 or 6, he told me that Santa Claus was a lie; that there was no such person as Santa Claus who came down the chimney and left presents for little kids. I cried. My mother got angry with my dad for telling me the truth.
I appreciate today my father’s truthfulness. Telling lies to children is the work of the Devil. He spends a lot of time telling lies so that we will not learn the truth.
2Cor 4:3-4
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Christmas is one of those great lies of the Devil. Instead of worshipping Jesus the way that God says we are to worship Him, we participate in false worship practices honoring the birth of the Sun god on December 25, all the while thinking we are honoring Jesus. And the rest of the world, Christian or not, follows along.
Take a bite of the fruit Thailand.
Until next time, guard the minds of your children. Satan is working overtime targeting their little impressionable minds.
T. Leon Sexton
