What if…
As you probably have already figured out, the retailers are trying a new tactic this shopping season. “Black Friday Deals” all week long. (Actually longer than that if you count the online deals.) Such a bargain! Those door buster prices on selected items to get you into their stores are now being offered long before thanksgiving week arrives. Whether it pays off for the merchants waits to be seen. In addition, there is a whole other group of stores who have chosen NOT to open at all on Thanksgiving day to give their employees a break. (Good for them. I will make their stores the ‘first chance’ stores looking for items over the other stores that didn’t..) Needless to say, things are changing in the retail world.
In my more cynical moments, I think, “Good Lord, what next?” It is bad enough that Christmas items hit the shelves before Halloween, but if this continues, then Christmas in July may become more than a slogan. Then, in my prayer, came THIS redeeming thought. “What if…?
What if we all got our Christmas shopping DONE before Thanksgiving? What if the retailers are actually doing us a favor by putting those early opportunities to shop out there? What if we were all done with the commercial side of Christmas by Thanksgiving, so that we could actually celebrate ADVENT? What if we actually celebrated the season of Advent in a way that worked to hasten the day of the Lord’s coming?
Is it a pipe dream, this land of “What if”? Perhaps. But I wonder if we could change our attitude about these days, just as the retailers are changing their approach to our shopping. What if we lived each moment thinking: “Now.” Thinking: “This is the acceptable time!” Thinking: “He comes right now into my world, into our world to bring about his Kingdom.” Wouldn’t we somehow be different by keeping that thought in our hearts?
“This then is to watch:
to be detached from what is present and
to live in what is unseen;
to live in the thought of Christ as he came once,
and as he will come again;
to desire his second coming, from our affectionate
and grateful remembrance of his first.”
(Blessed John Henry Newman)
This Advent let these two words be your guide through the season: “What if…”