I asked a friend of mine: "In your opinion, what is the true message of this weekend, according to the biblical readings?" She said, "I do not know too much about the bible, but I do know that there are only 3 shopping days until Christmas, and, worse yet, I did not write all the Christmas cards yet." "Well," I replied, "How many Christmas cards do you have to write?" She said, "I really do not know, because I simply follow the white pages of the telephone book and I am still on letter M." Perhaps instead of talking about shopping days, we may be talking about "praying days to Christmas." Perhaps giving more importance to God than to Christmas cards would not be a bad idea. I personally like what Benjamin Franklin did in 1787, when George Washington was discussing the United States' future. Suddenly Benjamin Franklin stood up and said: "Gentlemen, let us pray, I am pretty well along in years and the longer I live the more I see the men's affairs are controlled by God. If a sparrow does not fly off the roof without his sovereign will, could a country progress without his help?"