What About Your Mother-in-Law?

With only 3 shopping days until Christmas, I take a deep breath, firmly set my jaw, grip the steering wheel, and inch along in traffic to buy another gift.

Having bragged the day before that I was completely through with shopping, with all of my presents wrapped and under the tree, it occurs to me that my beloved has not yet decided on a gift for his mother. After badgering him for days, “Have you thought about a gift for your mother?”, “What are you going to give your mother?”, “Do you have that present for your mother yet?” I finally resort to calling his sister. He has three sisters, and usually one of them will come up with a cool “group gift” they can all get together. However, this year, each sister has purchased her own gift.

So, I head to the mall at 10:30. We have a new outdoor mall in town with just about every store you could want. Traffic to the mall is heavy. Traffic at the mall is completely stopped. I finally park a good distance away and begin my trek, deciding that the distance is no big deal as everyone is walking outside from door to door anyway.

I am a fast walker; stroll is a word I do not comprehend. As I round the corner with my first destination in sight, I run smack into the packages carried by a woman strolling along with her head turned to her neighbor, deep in conversation. After much apology, I reposition my purse over my shoulder, place a death grip on the strap to ward off pickpockets, lean into the wind, which had picked up as soon as I approached the main row of stores, and continue on my way.

I’ve never been to New York, but this street of stores is close to what I imagine it to be like. The sidewalks are jammed with people. Joining the throng is like joining your friends on a jump rope in motion. You stand back; get the feel of the rhythm and at the first opportunity jump into the first hole you see. You quickly adjust your pace to that of the shoulder-to-shoulder mass of humanity, and, at the precise moment you reach your store, inch your way to the outside and drop out of the line.

A people watcher by nature, it is interesting to me how similar we all are as we breathe in each other’s tension and make it our own. Navigating my way through one store after another, I catch snippets of one-sided cell phone conversations. It seems that every lone shopper has brought a companion via cell phone. As I pass by, I hear one man whine to his cell-phone shopping companion, “I know a gift card would be easier; it’s just not fun to open a gift card at Christmas.” Maybe not, I‘m thinking, but it is way more fun than standing in the return line the next day. So go ahead, Mister, get that itchy sweater for your wife, two sizes too small with orangutan arms, and listen to her carp about the long line she has to endure the day after.

Still wandering around, trying to figure out what to buy a sweet mother-in-law, who doesn’t like to leave her home, doesn’t cook, has no hobbies, and won’t tell you what she wants for Christmas, I fall in line with an exasperated woman who is practically shouting to her cell phone shopping friend, “I have completely run out of ideas!” I chuckle to myself, “I’m with you, sister!”

Although I narrow my search to a few possibilities, nothing jumps out as being the one thing she would like to receive. After several hours, I take my aching legs, throbbing feet, sagging shoulders, and empty arms back to my car.

This experience reminds me of my Christian walk. I usually begin my ministry to others with great enthusiasm and energy, a song in my heart, and a spring in my step. However, faced with the challenges of difficult people, disappointment, and fatigue, the ministry often becomes drudgery. How often have I quit a good work simply because I got tired?

Isaiah 40:27-33:

The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.