What One Can Learn From a Garage Sale

It's been a few days since I've posted to this blog. Sorry for the absence. Been big into our garage sale of late. I have been posting on two of my other blogs regularly, but they were my first and I like to get them before the others if I can.

Had a conversation with a friend recently about the garage sale and how it's been going. I mentioned something which was brought home to me again as a result of our selling things: racism.

Back in 2002, after the company I worked for decided to dump half of my department (and all but two over forty), Spouse and I started a catalog business. We sold gift items. We also did craft shows and home parties. Did okay the first year, but each subsequent year was worse than the previous until the only sales we made were when we took items from inventory and gave them away as gifts. Basically, the business sold the item at cost, and still had to pay sales tax.

Anyway, one of my assigned duties was determining what products we would sell and at what price. Since we were operating a gift store business many of the items fell into the figurines category, and I purchased an assortment. Those which did best were of animals, but people figures did all right. Except for those of minorities. Spouse warned me that they would be hard to sell, but I didn't believe it. Racism belonged to our parents' generation, not ours. People our age and younger weren't saddled with all of that rubbish anymore.

I was wrong.

The only people to purchase these items were minorites. Caucasians, which made up most of our clientele, would not purchase them. Not even Christians. Real Christians, who really do believe in Jesus as their Savior. Not even when the poses were Christian in nature. It was a sad eye-opener for me.

Not that I am immune to prejudices and such. It's impossible not to be affected. But these are inanimate objects. How can one be prejudice against an inanimate object? My two beautiful black angel music figurines remained unsold for years - until this week when a Nigerian woman showed up and purchased them both for a dollar apiece. I paid nine dollars each to get them. But no one would buy them.

Had a pair of Christmas ornaments: one with caucasian figures and one with black. A woman came and picked the first out. Wanting to eliminate our inventory I offered a buy-one-get-one-free deal for the other. She started to take the other, but suddenly withdrew her hand as though it were offensive. My only conclusion was that it was because the other depicted black figures.

Like I said, I have my own problems with prejudice, so it is fairly hypocritical of me to complain about the behavior of others. But it saddens me that my generation is NOT the generation which finally puts this nonsense away.

I've never liked it that many minorities spend so much time complaining about racism. But it turns out raciscm is rampant and I am the one living in a fairytale world. Are people of color different than me? Absolutely. But guess what? So are caucasian people. We're all different! That's what makes us individuals.

Yet at the same time, we have so much in common.

Each of us needs God in our lives. We are made up of spirits contained in vessels of flesh and blood, which dictate so much of our lives. We will all live forever in some place. To avoid hell, we must be forgiven of God. All of us. Not just caucasians. Not just people of color. We all suffer from life's injustices. And yet some of us see fit to add to those pains so that others suffer even more. That is not what God had in mind when he created us.

Do not Judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. John 7:24 Revised Standard Verison

And if you invoke as Father him who judges each one impartially according to his deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile. 1 Peter 1:17 Revised Standard Version

The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tries hearts. Proverbs 17:3 Revised Standard Version

God doesn't judge us according to our race. Why do we?