BLACK FRIDAY'S ULTIMATE PURCHASE

Up until now, the concept of Black Friday repulsed me. The impulse to spend hard-earned money and waste well-deserved rest time for the sake of cinching the best deals before Christmas was nothing short of insanity. If I knew the marketer who came up with this inferno idea, I would have hung him (or her) on a tree next to Judas Iscariot! Community got swapped out for commercialism; gratitude for greed. I wondered, “How high a price were we willing to pay for stuff with a limited shelf life?”

During our Thanksgiving Eve service, as I wept in my piety over the lost souls of man, the thought of another Black Friday loomed over two millennia. A lone shopper took His place in line for the ultimate purchase: Sins past, present and future. This purchase came at a premium no previous, earthly sacrifices could satisfy. Yet the lone shopper willingly took His place in line for the ultimate purchase. To Him, His sacrifice was worth the price. To Him, His sinless, yet gruesome death was worth sin’s gruesome exchange.

On that first Black Friday, the lone shopper paid the price at Golgotha on a rough and rustic timber between two sinners. But after the long exchange, the lone shopper emerged with the ultimate purchase: The keys of death, hell and the grave! No bartering for souls. No bait-n-switch for salvation. No bargain for Susie, Sally, Sarah or Sandy (or anyone else, for that matter)!

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16, 17 – NLT).

Although I still don’t agree with the concept of Black Friday, who am I to judge the beauty of the ultimate purchase from the lone shopper on that first Black Friday over 2000 years ago!  To this, I repent and offer instead of criticism, Christ's ultimate purchase of eternal life.

I pray you and yours enjoy this holiday season immensely! Allow the “Lone Shopper” (aka Jesus) to be the real reason for the season!