Shopping in the Dark

Last week, I took my three kids to a store that we go to on occasion. When we walked through the door, I immediately noticed that some of the lights were off. It was enough to make me pause, wondering what was happening. And as soon as I did, I heard a voice from a smiling young girl say, “Welcome to Five Below,” which was the usual greeting we received upon entering the store. Then I noticed a handful of other customers throughout the store, so I assumed everything was ok and we went about our shopping.

Well, our browsing only lasted a couple of minutes before man appeared from the back of the store. I was the first customer he saw, and he raised both arms in the air and said, “Ma’am, you must leave the store. We are having a power outage.” He then went around telling the other customers the same, some having several items they had to set down before leaving. They had obviously been shopping for much longer than I had.

As we were leaving, I heard the man from the back tell the young girl at the front to stop letting people in the door, since the cash registers weren’t working. There was no way for the customers to buy anything.

Honestly, after leaving the store, I was annoyed at the young girl who welcomed us in. I thought, Why did she do that? How could she welcome all those people in the door, letting them waste their time shopping, instead of telling them that the power was out?

It was almost like I was blaming her for the power outage.

But then my next thought was, I had a feeling something was not right, why didn’t I just ask the girl instead of assuming everything was ok?

Have you ever been quick to blame someone else for something that happened?

In the Garden of Eden, do you remember what Adam said after God asked him why he ate the fruit? Adam said, “It’s the fault of the woman you put here with me. She gave me some fruit from the tree. And I ate it.” And then what did Eve say? She said, “The serpent tricked me. That’s why I ate the fruit” (Genesis 3:12-13 NIrV).

Adam and Eve blamed someone else when they disobeyed God. Sure, there were others who played a part. And the serpent was punished for what he did. But in the end, it was their choice.

Read Matthew 7:3-5. Sometimes we all need to remember that we have a log in our own eye.

And I also need to remember not to go shopping in stores that don’t have all the light on. 😊

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