Good News

As I write this ‘thought’ it is just a few days into the period of Lent with Easter time some way off. The main reason I’m telling you this is I have just got back from a trip to the shops and what I saw somewhat surprised me.

The store was quite quiet and as we were queueing up to pay at the checkout I noticed on the other checkout, which was not in use, three or four items with the yellow reduced label on them. I guess they were there to make sure people like me noticed them. The items were piled on top of each other, but at the bottom, rather bashed about, was a packet of six hot-cross buns. Obviously they had reached their ‘sell by’ date, albeit some weeks before Easter.

As I stood there my mind went to ‘The Cross’ on which Jesus died, and a feeling of sadness came over me as it seemed the cross on those buns meant so little, the bottom of the pile and seemingly with less value than other items. How many people, I wonder, even think about the Cross when eating their buns with a cup of tea!

For Christians, the Cross is at the centre of God’s plan of love for His people. The Cross where God’s Son was sacrificed for the sins of the world that His children would be redeemed; the Cross where Jesus died for you and me. Surely our prayer must be for others to come to know of the saving power of the Cross, then the sadness I felt would be replaced with joy.

The Cross was made of rough, bashed about wood with splinters and rough edges, certainly not varnished and polished mahogany.

Maybe someone else looked at that squashed, bashed about, reduced packet of buns, with rough edges, and saw the Cross in a new way and at that moment heard God calling them by name, with the call to follow Him. Now, wouldn’t that be good news!

Vic, 08/03/2026