A Black Friday Wish

        As many of you are reading this, you are either full of turkey or preparing to go out for Black Friday shopping. My little brother Scott is preparing for something completely different. Scott and the Statesville High School football team will be playing Charlotte Catholic tonight in Hound Hollow. One of my favorite moments of the football game is when Scott walks off the field and often my little cousin will run up to Scott and give him a great big hug. Scott is a celebrity to my cousin and my cousin couldn’t be prouder to call Scott his.

            This Sunday in the church year is known as Christ the King Sunday, when we enthrone Christ on the throne of grace and the throne of our own lives. This important Sunday got me thinking as to how we might put Christ on the throne of our existence and very being.

            All of us begin today shopping, buying and giving gifts to people. More often than not we forget that many people are destined to a blue Christmas. Many people this season leading up to Christmas won’t have a place to call home, whether that is because of a struggling economy on the home front or the occupation in Gaza abroad. What might we give this season leading up to Christmas that has lasting meaning and a beautiful reality?

            Friends this week be my like my brother Scott after those long football games. I know that Scott and the entire team are worn out and tired from the game, but Scott still takes time to make my cousin Peyton feel like a celebrity, not with lavish gifts of material means, but with a gift of embrace. What if this Christ the King Sunday we made someone feel like a celebrity with a kind affirmation or gesture? What might our world look like then?

            The God of love is present in our lives this season more than ever. God incarnate is on his way, what might we do to prepare for that? It could be anything from cooking a home cooked meal to praying for peace in the Gaza strip. Our world is broad and wide and there is so much we can do to bring God incarnate here and now.

            Tonight I will be cheering for my brother, proud because of the person he has grown up to be, not only on the football field but when it comes to the interaction of people that sometimes go unnoticed.  This Christ the King Sunday, how will you enthrone the King of creation in your heart? May we all find new ways to say here I am Lord, use me.