"Black Friday doesn't get the attention it deserves!" Should we not want talk about people rushing into retail stores for a "once-in-a-lifetime" deal or about the overwhelming number of choices online? Okay yes - we appreciate Thanksgiving, the wonderful food, and the amazing fellowship. Culturally, we quickly move on to Christmas shopping and buying more stuff, stuff, stuff.

A little trivia: Black Friday get its name from the 1950s, referring to large sales meant to capitalize on the Army-Navy football game that used to happen on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It would grow into the largest day of sales for most retail giants. Also...

• It is called Brown Friday by plumbers, due to the surge in calls.
• Auto insurance claims increase during the weekend.
• Walmart is more popular in one day than Disneyland in the entire year.

Is this something you in which you should participate? As long as you use what you have for God's glory as a steward of His riches, there should not be a problem. But what about the "original" Black Friday?

We are talking about Jesus on the Cross here. Historically, this label was used as an alternative name for Good Friday. It was called so for two reasons: (1) As Jesus hung on the Cross, darkness was over the whole land for 3 hours; (2) It was a dark day indeed for our Savior to die for our sins. We often come to services that day wearing black - to mourn the loss and pain that Christ endured.

We call it GOOD Friday because of its result: that we might be saved. We are thankful that Christ bore our sins for us!

“I’ve come at last,’ said he. ‘She has kept me out for a long time, but I have got in at last. Aslan is on the move. The Witch’s magic is weakening.’ And Lucy felt running through her that deep shiver of gladness which you only get if you are being solemn and still.”

In C.S. Lewis’s timeless novel The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the arrival of Father Christmas symbolizes the weakening of the magic of the White Witch—the weakening of evil in the world. As the everlasting winter finally wanes from Narnia, the arrival of Christmas, like the sun breaking through eternally gray skies, proclaims hope.

Hope marks the beginning and the first week of Advent. The Light of the World breaking into the proverbial darkness of history (and the literal darkness of the shepherds’ sky) has been celebrated for thousands of years, and it’s still worth celebrating.

“A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices” as the old hymn puts it—and in its words we can imagine the “deep shiver of gladness” running through Lucy as she hears about evil’s grasp on the world finally relenting.

Conversation starter:
“What’s something about Christmas that gives you hope?”