Love, always

The Christmas music was playing softly in the background as I walked into our local supermarket one day this past week. The store wasn’t too crowded and the lights were dimmed, to make things more pleasant for everyone. I sighed with relief. How lovely to be able to shop in relative peace and quiet, without so much noise and hassle! And how lovely it had been too, to see the shopping centre’s large nativity scene on display again, just near the supermarket entrance! Such a special reminder of the true meaning of Christmas, in the midst of all the hustle and bustle.

But then came the rude awakening. Nearby in the fruit section, a man erupted in anger.

At first, I could not work out what was happening. He was standing all by himself, so it was not as if he was angry with another customer or a staff member. Then I caught the words he was spitting out with great venom.

‘Aagh! Stupid, b… bags! What the …?’

On and on the tirade went. Then he threw the offending plastic bag he could not manage to open onto the bananas he had been buying and stormed off, banana-less.

This scenario had nothing to do with me. Yet I found myself still thinking about it as I continued shopping. Yes, I know those silly plastic bags can be annoyingly hard to open. There is an art to it. And often patience is required—something this man obviously did not have at that point. But … what could have caused him to rant like that over such a relatively small thing? Perhaps he had huge issues happening in his life that felt overwhelming, I decided—perhaps the difficulty with the plastic bag was merely the last straw. I prayed then that he would calm down, wherever he had got to, and somehow find God’s peace.

I know in my own life I can become very stressed about little things that don’t really matter. I too can become angry and do and say things I would not normally do or say. But later, when I have calmed down and begun to feel ashamed of how I acted, I take a moment to sit and talk with God. Then I wait until I sense God’s wonderful forgiveness and grace flood over me again, that grace that lifts any shame off me and assures me I am still loved so much—and will be forever. What a privilege to experience this amazing love of God and to be at peace again, knowing God will always welcome me home with open arms!

This is the true peace God offers each of us—including that angry man in the supermarket. Yes, we will have troubles, as Jesus himself told his disciples (John 17:33). But Jesus, in coming to earth, has offered us all a way to be at peace with God again—and to live in peace with others too.

This Christmas, may you know that everlasting peace only God can give, whatever is happening in your life. And may you see in the baby in the manger, God’s deep, eternal love for you and experience that love afresh this Christmas.

And he will be called: Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6b

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That ‘alternate narrative’

There I was, half listening to the news on the car radio as I tried to think of simple Christmas presents for the grandchildren and work out my plan of attack once I reached the shopping centre. Yet, for one moment, I managed to register what the female politician on the radio was saying.

‘We need to stop this—we need an alternate narrative to offer these young people who are turning to terrorism,’ she was saying to those at some high level political assembly.

As I hunted for a car park, that intriguing phrase, ‘an alternate narrative’, kept echoing inside my head. What did it really mean? Would a simpler way of putting it be ‘a different story’ or ‘a different way of doing life’ or perhaps even ‘a better way of looking at things’?

I entered the huge shopping centre and was soon confronted with Christmas bargains and gifts suggestions everywhere. Christmas songs could be heard all over the centre. Christmas T-shirts bearing silly slogans with no connection to the real meaning of Christmas were on prominent display in one large store. I looked around in the centre of the shopping complex, thinking I might see a big nativity scene featured—but no. Only Santa on his throne in a large area set aside where children could be photographed with him. The previous day, I had been pleasantly surprised to find a manger scene set up in one unobtrusive spot, albeit in a rather toned down way, at a smaller shopping centre. But not here at this bigger centre situated in a more multicultural area.

Then it came to me. We already have an ‘alternate narrative’ to offer the young people this politician mentioned. We already have a different story to tell, a different way to offer of doing life. The very reason Jesus came to this earth and lived amongst us was to show us this and provide us with the way to find that life in God. This is the story of Christmas that we are about to celebrate. Yet so often it is nowhere to be heard or seen—or, if it is, it is present or shared in a way that will have very little impact, in order not to offend.

Yes, we have our Christmas carol events, but even with these, that ‘alternate narrative’ so often sounds somehow irrelevant and not quite true. We have our Christmas church services, but who of those young people that politician was talking about will be there? Instead, it seems to me it is up to each one of us who claims to live by that ‘alternate narrative’ to make a difference in this world throughout the whole year as often as we can and in whatever ways God has gifted us and given us the opportunity do so.

Yes, our world desperately needs this ‘alternate narrative’. It is already there and available. But it is so often ignored or not even heard. So I ask myself, am I prepared to write and speak about and live out that different story each day—that ‘alternate narrative’ of peace with God and through God, that old story of Jesus and his love? Are you?

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10b

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