A Buddhist who faithfully keeps the family’s 70-year-old Christmas tree on display each year? What kind of Christmas story is that?
Read about this Japanese man and about all he and his family have gone through and the memories linked to their small artificial Christmas tree. I think you’ll agree that it combines all the elements of a great true story of hardship, suffering, faith, and redemptive love. And, yes, he does have some Christianity in his background, though he does consider himself a Buddhist. I hope you will go to the site I’ve linked at the beginning of this paragraph and read the entire story. (Note to the AP reporter responsible for the story: You DO know you’ve got a best-seller in the making if you can write a book of Mr. Iwatake’s life, right? Right??)
Which brings me to my Number One statement about Christianity and individual faith: Coming from a Bible-based “fundamentalist” background I realized a few years ago that the Bible doesn’t say every individual has to conform to my interpretation of doctrine and teaching to be “saved”; the Bible clearly says “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). And only the individual and God know exactly what’s in their heart and life and how that relates to “calling upon the name of the Lord” when we get right down to it, right?
Bet you didn’t expect to get a free “sermon of the day” when you came here, did you? Consider it my Christmas bonus/holiday bonus to you!
Technorati Tags: Christmas, Buddhists, trees, just a guy who reads the papers