Better Than A Blue Light Special

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 NIV

My mom loves to shop.  Now I know a lot of people love to shop but not like my mother.  Shopping to my mother means finding the absolutely lowest price on the absolutely best product.  If you meet someone in my family and compliment something they are wearing, they are likely to tell you the story of how they got it and what a bargain it was. 

You must understand this about my mother to understand how her wildest dream came true.  K-mart was going out of business.  The store closest to my mom’s house was completely closing down.  On the way home from dinner one night, my mom talked my dad into stopping.  “Everything is 90% off,” she cajoled.  “Fine,” he agreed, “but we can’t stay long.”

My mother took the fifteen-minute allotment my dad had given and ran with it.  In fifteen minutes, she found quite a few items at rock bottom prices.  It was hard to leave, but she did.  Seeing her disappointment at walking away, my dad told her she could come back if he could go home first.  She gladly dropped him by the house and returned to shopper’s paradise.  But she had no idea what was about to happen.

As she walked in the door the K-mart employee told her, “$25 for a cart.”  “No thank you,” my mom drawled in her gracious southern accent, “I haven’t a need for a cart.”  

“Not for the actual cart, m’am. It will cost $25 for whatever you can fit in a cart.”

As my mother’s eyebrows arched, somewhere the heavens opened up, and angels brought forth glad tidings.  I’m sure Mother heard the trumpets.  Picture if you will, my curly brown haired mom frolicking, almost skipping, behind the shopping cart as her arms stretched this way and that virtually raking in shelves of knicks and knacks. 

When my math teacher mother had figured out the arithmetical formula for fitting the most items in her shopping cart, she arrived at the checkout – resplendent.  She looked around in sheer confusion at the other shoppers whose carts were less than full. 

Her arrival at home found my dad in his favorite spot, his easy chair.  My mother waltzed in with a bag in each hand.  She returned to the car and got two more.  My dad watched as she went back and forth each time producing more and more bags.  And in my mother’s words, “When I came in with all those bags, I just couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face.”  It was a dream come true.  “ I just kept looking for cameras,” she explained, “I knew I must be on one of those shopping spree shows.”

Friends, God wants us to have a “better than a blue light special” moment, too.  He wants to give you the desire of your heart.  God doesn’t want you to hurt.  That doesn’t mean He won’t let you hurt.  Sometimes, we have to grow from those experiences.  Does my mom find a bargain every time she shops? No.  Sometimes, she looks and looks and can’t find anything.  But, there are days when she has a Paradise in K-mart moment.

God has those moments prepared for you, as well.  Look beyond today, and find joy in what a loving God we have.  Praise Him for loving you enough to provide you something better than a blue light special.