Black Friday?

I woke up this morning to a very full inbox in my emails. Twenty emails were trying to get me to spend some money. Coupons. Discounts. Free shipping. Freebies.

Black Friday.

That is today.

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. On this day, most major retailers open extremely early, often at 4 a.m., or earlier, and offer promotional sales to kick off the shopping season. Black Friday is not actually a holiday. It is supposed to be the busiest shopping day of the season.

Did you know…

• The day’s name originated in Philadelphia to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving.
• Use of the term started before 1966 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975.
• For many years, it was common for retailers to open at 6:00, but in the late 2000s, many had crept to 5:00 or even 4:00.
• This was taken to a new extreme last night, when several retailers opened at midnight for the first time.
• The news media have long described the day after Thanksgiving as the busiest shopping day of the year. This was not always so. In earlier years, it tended to be  the Saturday before Christmas usually taking first place.
•  In 2003, Black Friday actually was the busiest shopping day of the year, and it has retained that position every year since except 2004, when it ranked second.
• Cyber Black Friday refers to online shopping done on this day as internet shopping increasingly became more popular.

(All facts obtained from Wikipedia)

All I know is that you will not find me anywhere REMOTELY near a store or mall today. Except perhaps for a supermarket, which by the way, will be empty today as all the crazies will be at the mall. Not a single sale could tempt me to contend with the traffic, circling for a parking space, fighting for a parking space (not me but others), getting pushed, walking like a herd of cattle in the mall, etc. Nope. I will stay home.

It is expected that there will be approximately 152 million shoppers this year in the US. That is based on last year’s 138 million shoppers!!! Can you imagine? You can’t? Let me help you….

Just as I thought, I haven’t missed a thing! I will still stay home!!!

But this is what has come to mind this morning:

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare”   (Isaiah 55: 1, 2 NIV). 

We could spend ourselves on things that will never satisfy that longing in us. Only when we satisfy ourselves in & through God, will we find that our longings are met. What He gives us will be sufficient for the need.

Today may we spend correctly. Both for our wallets & more importantly, for our souls.

Besides, you still have 29 days, 17 hours, 10 minutes.

                                     IF you read this as soon as I wrote it :)))