Black Friday- a Study in Contrast

Black Friday is when people go shopping and get great deals and fill their cars with all the items on their Christmas list for half the cost they might otherwise have incurred. Black doesn't seem to match the mood.
Good Friday is when Jesus was crucified, tortured, taunted, and killed. Good doesn't seem to match the mood there either.

This year, Black Friday really was black, My nutty son and adventurous wife left at 9 pm to be sure to get a good parking space for the midnight opening of the stores. It was cold and dark, an inky black sky. They planned to shop all night. Ah, to be young! I went to bed before their car wheels hit the street. It is exhausting preparing an enormous multi-dish meal that you hope to all come out hot simultaneously. It also required college level math computations. I had to compute when my make-ahead casseroles (5 of them) had to come out of the freezer/oven, and go in to the oven either concurrent or directly after the turkey came out. They all had different thaw times and different cook times, which made the careful computation necessary if they were all to emerge at exactly the same time from the oven, just as the turkey was done being carved, and the family seated with just the right amount of famished. It is a juggling act that those who have never attempted have no idea about the complexity involved.

So on Black Friday eve, I was happily snoring while the mobs scoured the malls for items that would change their life. It is really a custom that somewhat puzzles me. Thanksgiving is all about contentment and gratitude. But Black Friday really feeds upon discontent, and insatiable desire to have more. I understand the drive to save money on Christmas gifts or necessities, particularly if money is tight, but still....there just strikes me something inherently off with the biggest shopping day of the season following the day when we all wallow in contentment. And now it doesn't even just follow the day of Thanks; it begins as early as 9:00 the same day. We of course know where this is headed. Black Friday will completely engulf Thankful Thursday, gobble it up entirely, and instead of the family gathering for a feast and prayers to our Almighty Creator, we will be standing in line at Walmart gathering for prayers to the Almighty Dollar.

This is not to say that I can't wait to see what Matt and Karissa snagged on their all night foray when they wake up, which won't be til the middle of the day, I imagine. I just wish Black Friday could occur a few days after Thanksgiving. It would have a less incongruous feel. Even Jesus waited three full days after Good Friday to demonstrate why it was so good.

Job 28:3
³ Mortals put an end to the darkness;
   they search out the farthest recesses
   for ore in the blackest darkness.

Matthew 27:
³⁹ Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads ⁴⁰ and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!”

Isaiah 53: 4-6
⁴ Surely he took up our pain
   and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
   stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
   and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
   each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
   the iniquity of us all.

Enjoying Life

I have never set foot near a store on Black Friday. I had heard too many horror stories about people entering the shopping vortex to be sucked down into the swirling consumerism, never to emerge again. However, my dear son Matt is a shopaholic, and loves deals, and he wanted to go shopping on Black Friday. And since I wanted to eek every last minute I could with my dear son, Asherel and I decided to join him. Arvo has an affliction known as "mall-walkingitis", and his little sore feet and he stayed home.

I did have a small list of things I needed, so with list in hand and my most comfortable shoes, we headed off to the hurricane force storm of shoppers.

I came away pleasantly surprised. First, no one was crushed to death by wild eyed consumers elbowing Grandma out of the way to grab the last "buy one get one free".  The sales people were unwaveringly friendly. When I produced my license as my ID for a purchase, I asked wistfully, "Does this still look like me?" (the license is a few years old.)
"Oh yes!" the two cashiers exclaimed, bending their heads over my photo, "Your hair is just shorter in this picture."
"I know....." I mused, "Do you think I look better in short hair?"
They peered at me and at the picture and then both agreed that yes, I did look better in short hair.
Drat! Just when I found a slightly longer style that I like and thought was becoming.
I was going to ask them which pair of jeans might look best on me, and if I should perhaps forgo contacts at my age and move on to trifocals, but the person behind me politely reminded me that "fashion advisory" was the next booth over.

The sales were amazing and I did finish every last bit of my Christmas shopping. I begin to see why Black Friday has such allure.  All my life I have been making fun of the sorry pieces of humanity that race out to buy, buy, buy. And while I still think that there is much more to life than buying things, Black Friday shopping ventures with loved ones is actually not really all about consumerism. The three of us had such fun wandering the aisles of goods, laughing, picturing a loved one in some outrageous outfit, fingering the $1500 dress Matt would love to buy his fiancee (but wisely didn't....couldn't....)  It is more about the joy of the hunt in a generation that no longer needs to shoot dinner, and the camaraderie in the pursuit. I realized that I am far too judgmental (again!) over things I don't quite relate to or haven't experienced. Goodness can indeed be found almost anywhere you look.

What would God think about Black Friday? The term originated in 1869 to describe the financial crisis in the US, but later was expanded to a more positive interpretation. On Black Friday, retailers make a profit, often for the first time of the year, and thus the "red ink" accounting of negative finances is replaced by black ink of profitability. I suspect that God would look at the motives of each shopper to determine His approval.

As we were crawling in a line of traffic to park, I saw a homeless man walk by the van in front of us. His clothes were tattered, his face grim and glassy eyed, his arms encircling a sign proclaiming his destitute status. The van driver rolled down his window and handed the man a bag and a rolled up blanket. The bag was filled with food, the blanket neatly tied with a ribbon. I felt certain the bag had a little note reminding the man that all is not lost, Jesus loves Him! I surmised that from the Christian bumper stickers on the van.

The whole day left a happy glow in my heart. I had been in the company of loved ones, I had gotten free hair advice, and I had seen an act of gentle, largely unnoticed kindness to a stranger down on his luck. I think God might be saying, "It's ok, just don't let it become the focus. In all things, give thanks!"

Ecclesiastes 8:15 (New International Version, ©2010)

¹⁵ So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.