Black Friday...

Perhaps you were one of the millions of folks who swarmed into stores last Friday at 4:00am to kick off the holiday shopping season. I personally don't understand the attraction. But then, I wouldn't jump out of an airplane or wrestle alligators either. I suppose everyone has their own sense of adventure.

What intrigues me is the name that the retailers have given their big day...Black Friday. For those in my generation and older, the word black (apart from its racial implications) is usually associated with the negative or empty or disappointing. "Black Friday" hardly means that for retailers who (some of them at least) count on that day and the season to follow to make their entire sales year. It's just that the name seems weird.

Then again...we Christians celebrate a Friday, too. We call it "Good." At first glance, it's the most terrible day we could possibly imagine. But it turns out that what happens on that day and on the brief three-day season to follow makes our entire year, too...indeed, our entire life.

Black Friday. Good Friday. Funny names. But I guess it makes sense after all.