This weekend throughout Vietnam people are celebrating “Tet Trung Thu” or the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is often referred to as a children’s holiday and is associated with harvest time and set by the lunar calendar always with the full moon. Families get together, enjoy going out to view the full moon, eating traditional mooncakes and decorating with lanterns. Children especially will have lanterns given to them, or make them and walk with their families carrying the lanterns in the dark of the evening. There is a traditional story associated with Tet Trung Thu that involves a woman who inadvertantly desecrates a sacred tree which results in her being transported to the moon and separated from the world. Her face is that seen in the moon each Autumn. It’s a fun story, and has some elements that bear remembering – where there is sin there is punishment.
Sadly absent from the story however is any hope of repentance, redemption and restoration. What a wonderful God we have that gives us His love and grace that shows us the way to return to Him! As beautiful as an Autumn evening may be, no one wants to remain in darkness. As pretty as the lanterns of Tet Trung Thu the light they provide is limited. But the light of God is eternal and all sufficient. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows Me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.” John 8:12 (HCSB)
Please pray with us for the peoples of Vietnam to embrace the Light of the world! Pray that all will see the true light found in Jesus and place their faith in Him receiving God’s gift of grace and salvation!
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