Black Friday and Cyber Monday should be named “Fabulous Friday and Marvelous Monday.” Advertisers do an incredible job of sending avalanches of promotional material via social media, electronic and actual mail, sign flippers on the streets and banners and billboards. You can’t miss the signs. You can get some amazing deals and veterans of the shopping wars are poised and ready for this incredible weekend. And then there is me.

I am aware that this opportunity is coming and WANT to be a professional shopper on these days. But invariably, I find myself in a whirlwind of every other life thing going on so that when this day arrives, I panic and choke. I typically do have a strategy for shopping for deals:

1 – keep a running list of everything I need or want for the house

2 – when I come across a store going out of business, or a wholesale or discount store with fabulous prices, I check the list and can calmly decide: yes, this is the time I’ve been waiting for! OR, nope, I think I can get a better deal if I’m patient.

Well, the post-Thanksgiving weekend is famous for its discount deals. Once again this year, not only did I not make professional shopper status, I didn’t even qualify for the farm team. I had no list, I had not adequately stalked the teasers for what was to be on sale, and I spent way too much time browsing online and in stores, hoping things would come to mind. They didn’t. I blanked. No Christmas gift ideas in my brain’s parking lot, no home needs in my memory banks – I couldn’t even dial up any of the things that I routinely purchase to check for those items to be on sale! Oh, but I spent money on OTHER things that I hadn’t previously wanted or needed, thus ruining the whole point of trying to spend less money on the stuff I DO want and need.

The Old Testament was filled with signs and descriptions of what the Messiah’s coming would look like. It described the virgin birth, the place of origin, the humble beginnings he would have. There were several hundred prophecies that He fulfilled, in fact. Scholars argue about the actual number, but there were plenty to match up Jesus with the foretold Messiah. But much like I missed all the sales despite the signs and warnings, and even the immediate opportunity once they arrived, many of the religious leaders and devout Jews of the day MISSED that Jesus the Messiah was in their midst! The religious leaders didn’t even have an excuse because they knew every word of the scriptures! Every single one of the prophecies about what Jesus would be like was in their head! And they missed it! They were so wrapped up in the pomp and circumstance of their piety and the order of their religion that when Jesus the Christ stood in front of them, they battled Him instead of embracing Him. They were so intensely focused on the forest that they missed the tree. The tree of life.

We have the advantage of hindsight. We can see that Jesus fulfilled what we were told. Let’s not miss the best thing that this life could ever offer us – a relationship with the One who was and is and is to come!

We have just entered advent season. Advent means “the arrival.” Christmas celebrates the arrival of Jesus as a baby: God becoming flesh to dwell among us. He came to tell us who God really is, that He loves us so, and wants a relationship with every one of us. Now we are waiting again for the “second arrival.” The prophecies in the Bible tell us that when Jesus returns, He will not come humbly as a baby, but rather as a conquering King! He will then collect all who call Him Savior to live in His eternal Kingdom.

Doctor Luke records for us Jesus’s words in 12:35-38 “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to Him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when He comes. Truly, I say to you, He will dress himself for service and have them recline at the table, and He will come and serve them. If He comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants!”

I have been kicking myself for missing the opportunity to save money on Black Friday weekend. But I know January is coming and I will have another chance to jump on some clearance sales. But if we miss out on the fact that Jesus is who He said He was, and the amazing opportunity to have a relationship with Him, there will not be a second chance. Please, let us all be awake and alert and READY for Jesus to come gather us to His Kingdom! This isn’t about saving money, but our souls.