BRITE FRIDAY

 Black Friday is celebrated the day after Thanksgiving and, for many, this tends to be the unofficial start to the Christmas shopping season. Black Friday offers an opportunity to buy gifts for family and friends or to obtain goods and services for ourselves. But in our shopping, we should be careful that we are not being drawn into false worship, convinced to buy things because unconsciously we think these things will provide the redemption that Christ alone can provide.

Christmas truly is one of the most wonderful times of the year. For many, there are warm parties, cozy homes, fond traditions to celebrate, and gifts to be shared. It’s a joyous time of celebration. However, sometimes we get lost in the season and forget the true reason for celebration. The "reason for the season" is supposed to be Jesus, not gifts, not parties, and not watching "the big game."  Of course, having celebrations, attending parties, and watching the big game are not wrong. It's just that the meaning of Christmas is supposed to be the recognition and appreciation of the birth of the one who loves us and died in our place. 

This is such a great time of the year. Everyone is pulling out their Christmas decorations, are stuffed full of turkey, and are getting excited about all the holiday events to come. Black Friday might seem like a harmless holiday to kick off the Christmas-buying season, but its undertones are against what God wants for us. The Christ of Christmas puts to death the greed and consumerism that so easily entangles us this time of year. Black Friday shopping doesn’t have to be all about greed and consumerism. It doesn’t have to be about excessive spending and fights with people over the last flat screen television. It can be a time for Christians to live differently than the world around them—to be in the world and not of it. And on a day that is so often overshadowed by the sins that so easily entangle all of us, that could be good news this holiday season.

On Black Friday, we should continue our Thanksgiving in the sense of truly giving thanks to God for the possessions we already have, not to mention the families, relationships, and all of the other blessings we continually enjoy in our lives. The commencement of the Christmas shopping season overshadows the commencement of a far quieter season.