Loy Gratong

This is my son Jake. He is preparing for Loy Gratong. Loy Gratong is a charming holiday in Thailand. The festival takes place when the moon is full in November. A Gratong is a little boat in which you put flowers, incense and a few coins. And you place it in water and watch it float away. Symbolically you are watching your sins float away and looking forward to new blessings in the coming year. I find that interesting. Quite different from the way we Christians deal with sin, isn't it? In my limited experience, sins don't usually float away. They have to be forgiven, often at great expense to both the person who is doing the forgiving and the person being forgiven. I find that often it's impossible.

Impossible, at least, without Jesus. What a great God we have who would pay the price for our forgiveness and then simply require faith and love in return!