Closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Sundays
With all the hoopla and uproar over workers being forced to work on Thanksgiving, it reminds me of a story from my childhood about a boy in junior high school who was bicycling along the road in Lakeland, Florida.
This boy rides out of the subdivision and down the road and crosses the railroad tracks until he sees the outdoor shopping center. Publix is the anchor store, but there is a small movie theater and other small stores therein. He looks up into the sky, wondering to God about why everything is closed that day. As he is not in school that day, the boy finally has the time to explore the world around him and the world is closed.
The boy crosses the 4-lane highway with ease as there is no traffic out at all. It's around 10:30 AM. He takes his bike for a spin around the parking lot. Then he slowly peddles home, disappointed. Whether as the story goes this day was Sunday or Christmas or Thanksgiving, I can't truthfully tell you.
For as you see the boy was me. I didn't go to church, hardly ever. Like most people in the world, I didn't really believe in God and I saw no point in pretending that I did. I tried to live a good life and did a decent job at doing such, not that it matters one bit.
But now, I look back in my life, having found God. I realize that God was listening to this little boy and his “wonderings.” I call them prayers now. The “wonderings” about why everything is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Sundays. I know now the answer to that question.
It's closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Sundays because people like me - with a family, a wife, a child - just want the chance to spend one day with each other. And in this hectic, secular world we live in today I wonder once again, why do Target and Wal-mart and Toys R Us have to be open on Thanksgiving?
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