Today as I write this it is Black Friday, yesterday was Thanksgiving and I long to go back to a time when it mattered. Perhaps that is just nostalgia. Perhaps Thanksgiving never really was that important to most people. But it is important to me. It is important to me because of family.
As a pastor I place a premium on family. I believe that setting aside sacred space to build strong relationships with your loved ones is invaluable and that how you treat your relatives will determine how you treat everyone else. I believe that so strongly that I strapped 10-month-old, teething twins into their car seats and drove them six and a half hours (it’s five without twins) from the Eastern Shore of Virginia down to Raleigh, N.C., to spend Thanksgiving Day with family that we see maybe three times a year.
Will Baker
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But on Thanksgiving Day I barely saw one of the most important people in my life — my youngest brother. He’s a supervisor at a large sporting goods store. Apparently it wasn’t enough for them to open at midnight on Black Friday. The store was open all day long on Thanksgiving. We held off on the Thanksgiving meal until he got off at 6 p.m., but after working all day he was exhausted. Having to go back to work at 6 a.m. for Black Friday, he wasn’t able to stay long.
I understand that people have to make money and competition is important in a capitalistic society, but as Christians we need to recognize how important it is biblically to set certain days aside for rest and worship. That’s what Thanksgiving is, a day set aside by the nation to give thanks to God — unless you work in retail.
Sabbath is found in the story of creation and the Ten Commandments. The prophets lifted up the Sabbath and railed against breaking it. The need to set aside time for God and rest is found everywhere in the Bible. When Jesus and his disciples deal with the Sabbath it is always with great respect. Jesus only puts Sabbath aside when it prevents people from loving their neighbors and themselves. He never puts it aside to force someone else to work.
Thanksgiving might not be in the Bible, but we as a nation have chosen to observe it and to call it a day of thanksgiving for what God has given us. If you are reading this then there is a good chance you are a Christian and an even better chance you believe family is important. I had to drive a long way to be near my brother. I just wanted to sit with him. I wanted to spend a day listening to his story face to face, be in the company of his warm smile and lend him mine when talk turned to painful things. I wanted to shake his hand (we don’t really hug in my family) and then horse around with him like we did when we were boys. I wanted him to help my son start to learn what it’s like to horse around and my daughter to learn what a good man is.
These are the moments that bring families closer together, that build bonds that the devil can’t break. We need to lead the way here. Families are under such immense pressure today. Society pulls them every which way but the right one. You know what I’m asking you to do. On Sundays eat at home, with your family. And on Thanksgiving don’t go shopping, don’t go out for coffee, don’t even order something on the Internet. I promise the stores and the deals will be right there waiting with their rusty, moth-ridden treasures on Black Friday. Give Thanksgiving Day to God and family.
Will Baker (revwillbaker@gmail.com) is pastor of Drummondtown Baptist Church in Accomac, Va.