The other day I learned about “Green Monday”. Green Monday is the 3rd Monday in December, which is now being added to the list of celebrated retail holy days like “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday”. Green Monday’s specificity is that it is the last day to reliably order an online gift that will show up before Christmas Day without expedited shipping. 
Green Monday adds to the general overwhelm that I feel when it comes to Christmas shopping. While I am terribly over- and pre-planned in so many things in my life, Christmas shopping is something that I have historically left to the last moment possible. I even remember priding myself on being able to get all of my Christmas shopping in the midst of the retail chaos of Christmas Eve, calling it “Guerilla Shopping.” But these days, my Christmas list has gotten bigger or harder to shop for or something. So I have to pay attention to things like “Green Monday,” especially with those hard-to-shop-for types.
In Micah 6, the prophet to the last Judean kings before the Babylonian Exile seems to be putting together a Christmas list. “With what shall I come before the LORD?” Burnt offerings of veal? Nope. Tons of mutton? Nope. Rivers of EVOO? Nope. My first born? Please, no. Micah is coming to the realization that God is hard to shop for. You can search Amazon, Etsy, Ebay….even CPH…and you won’t find anything that he wants. And you certainly won’t find it before Christmas.
But here’s something that you can start doing right now. God has given his prophet a list. Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly. It’s an impossible list to complete. But that is sort of the point, isn’t it? God doesn’t want us to just buy a present by Green Monday and do that “dusting our hands off” gesture saying to ourselves, “alright God, we’re good until next Christmas.” Rather, God wants us to continue to walk with Him, to tell him of our struggles when we attempt to do justice, to confess our lack of living kindness, and to check our humility.
After all, His gift to us is an ongoing gift as well. In giving us His Son, the Father didn’t give us a gift that would allow Him to be “done with us,” rather, He gave us a gift that united Himself with us for all of eternity. And even though He’s hard to shop for, I thank Him daily that He has called me to attempt to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with Him for all of eternity. I hope you thank Him for this as well.