Black Friday, what's on your list?

       When I was a very young boy, I had the habit of visiting my elderly neighbor ladies for ginger ale and Vienna fingers. They loved me so. This time of year I started to get especially excited to visit as "The Wish Book" would be arriving any day from Sears. The Wish Book was the ultimate catalogue of its day and was chock full of everything but most importantly, every toy a kid could possibly want. My own wish list was heavily derived from that wonder book and quite often some of those items appeared under the Christmas tree with my name affixed.

       Today is 'black friday' and I suppose today is the day that unofficially marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season. Everyone it seems gets into the act and I confess there was one year I caved and got up at 3am and met some coworkers to indulge in the madness. Never again I assure you.

        In today's passage we are assured that God will give us justice if we ask for it. In other similar passages like Matthew 7:9 or  Luke 11:11, we are asked what father would give a snake when a child asks for bread? God will always hear us and respond favorably.  God will always provide sustenance as well as justice it seems. We can count on God always, always at our side, always full of love for us.

        But what of my personal Porsche Macan? Will God provide that for me? Perhaps God will so indulge me some day. I will be quick to note that this indigence may come at a time I realize just how frivolous a request it really is. I guess I really know that now. My point is that God does provide. I am not saying you will get everything on your list that now might be as heavily laden with electronics as with any pack of Legos, Lincoln logs or Erector sets or even that ripped guy from the gym.

        I notice that today's passage speaks of justice as the key promise. I cannot help but think what we have to ask for is what makes us whole and in some way cooperates with what we need to make us whole as humans and as an individual.  That is, the person God made us to be fully alive with all our talents and abilities. With my penchant and interest in building, it is no wonder that God (  as my parents ) made sure Legos were under the tree for me, they encouraged a talent I still enjoy and embrace to this day. I enjoy it too with my grandkids. There is boundless love there in both directions.

          I can't help come back to the extensive lists of things we may come up with on this obscenely materialistic shopping day.  I will be the first to embrace the notion that anything we ask God for should be not of this world unless the objects in question support and promote a bigger goal, being a better person or contributing to making the world a better place.

         When we buy things that people do not need, for people we may not really like and with money that we really may not have, how is that contributing to God's plan of love for us? Is that the love and justice God seeks? A card that announces a person is giving a herd of sheep to a remote village somewhere via  Heifer International. Not so exciting for a kid perhaps but maybe a great gift for someone who understands that they don't really need another chochka for a dusty shelf. It seems something like that truly cooperates with God's plan of  one family, justice and love for everyone.

       What's on your list?

Luke 18:1-8

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.” ’ And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’