An evening trip to Big Lots

I made an evening run to Big Lots, just three short days away from Christmas. Why didn't I prepare ahead of time!!! Agh!

When I arrived at the store, the check-out lines are long with other last-minute shoppers. It was still early in the evening, but the plan was to find what I needed, pay for the goods, then get home to finish preparing the gifts.

I spent probably around 40 minutes walking around the store to get the items on my list, and when I got to the check-out lane to leave, I was the only shopper there ready put my items on the counter, pay, and leave. There was only one cashier at a register, so I proceded to her lane and began putting all my items on the counter. I greeted her, smiled, and began stacking all my items, but she wasn't processing them at all. As my pile got taller and taller, she finally explained that she was waiting for the store manager to come log her in, or open the register for her, so she could begin processing the goods.

The store manager was nearby helping another customer. The manager was on the phone, off the phone, looking at the sales ad, back on the phone, talking to the questionning shopper, off the phone, talking to an employee, looking at the calendar, paging someone on the intercom system, and so on. But why was she NOT helping this cashier open up the register! My cashier was the only clerk there and now there was a LONG line of other ready-to-leave shoppers behind me...it shouldn't take this long!

This blond, sweet, patient cashier made small talk with me. She really was very kind. I tried to remain positive and patient and understanding because it really wasn't this cashier's fault the wait was so long, it was the manager's lack of priority, but the cashier never criticized her seemingly uncaring manager, she just smiled and encouraged me saying, 'it wouldn't be too long and she'd get me out of there real quick.'

I imagine I waited at that check-out lane for nearly 15 minutes, waiting for the manager to open the cash register for this cashier. In that LONG 15 minutes, this precious cashier and I made small talk. She asked me what I was going to to do "this", and how was I going to use "that", and I answered her questions in short answers. But what really got to me is when she asked me where my husband works. I suddenly had to think: had I been kind and patient? My husband is a pastor of a church...how had my attitude and behavior been? Was I a good ambassador for Central Community Church, and more importantly, for Christ? Would how I had acted and talked and treated this cashier encourage her to attend my church? I then answered her: he is a pastor at Central Community Church, on Maple road. She was familiar with this big church on Maple, even had a friend who attended there regularly. She then said: I think I'll come to your church and try it out.

This experience was a humbling test for me. Three days before Christmas when all the gifts would be opened, and I was at the store on a Monday night buying more gifts that had yet to be prepared and wrapped. The long wait was a test of my patience. It wasn't the cashier's fault that the manager hadn't opened her cash register, and it wasn't the cashier's fault I had waited 'till the last minute.

I hope I passed this test and that this cashier will visit our church. Maybe she's already been there...maybe not. If my attitude had been disagreeable...if I had been impatient...if I had sighed and complained about how hot I was getting with my coat on, waiting for so long, I doubt this woman would have looked at my example and said, "Wow! I want to go to her church!". No, she probably would have thought the opposite, never stepping into a church again.

As Christians, we are being watched and judged by others. I am not responsible for how others respond to me, but I am responsible for my own actions and behavior. In that moment of trial at the check out lane three days before Christmas, when this sweet cashier asked me where my husband works, I stopped and evaluated my behavior before I answered her question. I wanted to be a good witness for Jesus Christ, but I shouldn't have had to stop and think about it. My attitude and behavior should always be one that my Lord and Savior would be pleased with...especially around those who don't know Him, and that could be just about anyone, everyone, we come in contact with!

Colossians 4:6, "Your speech should always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person. "

Teaching Point: Making Room for Jesus

Imagine it: Mary – fully pregnant – traveling on a donkey to her husband’s ancestral hometown. Why go to Bethlehem? It was a political decree to return to the family’s home to be counted – a census. Not too different from the census our own government makes today, but nowadays we can stay in the home we own! Back in the days of Jesus, they had to return to their ancestral home. Joseph was a descendant of King David, as was Mary, so they had to travel back to Bethlehem to be counted for the census. God used this royal decree to fulfill the prophecy written in Micah 5:2, “But you Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” When the three wise men came to King Herod, this was the verse the scribes recited to King Herod to substantiate what the wise men were saying.

From what I've read, the houses in Bethlehem are built on the slope of a limestone ridge. Many of these have a cave-like stable hollowed out in the limestone rock under the house. And…the rest of the story is familiar to us all: Joseph and Mary try to find a place to stay but there literally is “no room” for them anywhere, so they settle on a humble cave, where the homeowner’s animals were kept, to sleep and ultimately to give birth to the Savior of the world. What can we learn from this?

1. No person is too lowly or too “dirty” with sin for Jesus to come to. No matter how dark a persons’ past or how cold and unfeeling his heart is, Jesus will come into his heart, forgiving and cleansing him of all sin.

2. No matter how impossible our situation may be and no matter how unlikely we think it is for Jesus to show up, He will come to us and help IF we make room for Him.

I’ll be praying for each of you this week as you, like myself, busy yourself with the activities of Christmas: the shopping and wrapping; the school programs and church responsibilities; the stress of money, or expectations, or relationships. It’s all so “busy” and "crowded" and we sometimes don’t have room for Jesus, or worse don’t make room for Him. Allow Jesus to enter into all your Christmas activities this week and celebrate His birth with overflowing Joy that God is with us! Jesus is Emmanuel – literally “God with us”.