I went to the local Woolworths the other day to get the ingredients for the annual Christmas pudding and some gingerbread (well, why not?). The shelves were a little bare in places where I would have liked a few more options.
I wasn’t particularly happy about it. I felt a little Old Mother Hubbard frankly.
There was literally one bag of brown sugar available for purchase and purchase it, I did.
However, I also did pick up a few more prizes for my Year 7 Christmas quiz bonanza. Woolworths is definitely the principal sponsor of the event.
When I got home I had an email from Woolworths in my inbox (it’s like they were watching me). Coincidence or not, the CEO was sending out an email about the industrial disputes that had impacted the distribution centres and thus the delivery of products to the stores. The CEO was apologising for the impact it had cause in the lead up to Christmas time.
You know the weirdest thing about that email?
She actually seemed genuine.
Now maybe it was a very well worded piece of PR, but I was taken aback – because she actually said ‘sorry’. Twice.
Often CEOs send out communication that doesn’t sound contrite at all. ‘Sorry I got caught’ more like. ‘I’m just sending this email out to try and earn some brownie points because I know I have to do it.’
But actually sorry? Not a chance.
Now I have no idea whether the CEO of Woolworths is actually sorry or not. And I have no wish to deliberately promote any particular supermarket chain. I also don’t have shares with Woolworths so I’ve got nothing to gain by talking positively about them.
She may be truly sorry. Or she may just have a great writing team.
Either way, the email stood out.
I’ve been reflecting a lot about being thankful in December. Thankful for the gift of God come into the world as a baby, grown into a man to save us from our sins.
After reading that email just now, I’m reflecting on how contrite and broken I am over my sin in December. How much am I thinking about the salvation that Jesus offers and saying sorry to God for the ways I’ve gone against his wishes?
I know, it doesn’t seem festive. But Christmas always points towards Easter time. It just makes logical sense.
So perhaps it makes sense at Christmas time to be sorry as well. To not just be thankful for a baby being born but to take the time to find out what God’s instructions for living are and the ways we’ve ignored them.
And then say sorry.
And actually mean it.
A movie associated with Christmas that many people know is Love, Actually.
Now, Hugh Grant is not a paragon on holiness by any means (but there’s grace available for the chief of sinners, Hugh, myself included). Yet one of his opening lines in the movie was a most edifying word from the Lord for me at one point in my life.
You remember it:
“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling love, actually … is all around.”
Love Actually is all around.
It’s true too. Because God is all around and God is love.
A love that came into the world at the first Christmas and then was despised and rejected. Came to help and was abused. And then crucified.
That’s why we need to say sorry at Christmas time; because we know what happens to that little baby in a manger.
To say sorry and actually mean it.
To recognise a love that is all around and how we’ve treated it instead.
To be thankful that the love of God is a forgiving love, but not a stupid one.
When we say sorry, He knows if we actually mean it or not.
Yours, actually,
Alison
