R is for REDEEM

It's Christmas Day once again and by now you probably have opened all the gifts that you received from relatives and friends. I have still to open mine but already I know that in among all the soft and hard shapes lying at the foot of the Christmas tree are one or two envelopes. I know because we put them there for the two lads. They contain vouchers of various sorts that can be redeemed at some of the stores in town and it allows them to get what they really want for Christmas. It takes more thought than you can imagine for you need to know the type of stores that twenty year olds like to but from but it's certainly more straight forward than running around toy shops and the like, which we used to do when they were small, even though that was great fun in itself. I suppose if it's not vouchers nowadays, then we probably do most of our festive shopping wither online or at Argos!

I've managed to get a couple of vouchers myself this year from one or two children in my class. They are always so kind at Christmas and even though they have to work hard all year they're all full of goodwill at this festive season. I know exactly which two shops I'll be visiting to redeem the vouchers and it will be a bit like having Christmas all over again, going into a shop and getting something for free that someone else has paid for. But already this past week, we've been using vouchers that the big stores send periodically or using their store cards to amass points that can be used against purchases at a later date. And you're probably in the same position too.

It's not a new craze either. I remember growing up in a world of Green Shield stamps, though we didn't collect them in any quantity ourselves. It was originally an American idea but caught on quickly over here and most people had some of the stamps lying in a pocket or on a shelf at home. It was a very simple but effective scheme. Many of the smaller retailers in towns and also petrol stations gave stamps to customers when they made a purchase. These could then be stuck into books and when enough were collected, could be redeemed for a gift in the Green Shield catalogue. It was a very successful venture for years but began to suffer because of one or two things. First, the retailer had to buy the stamps from the Green Shield company and their only perk in the system was customer loyalty because people tended to shop where they could get the stamps. However, to cover their costs, the retailers had to increase prices on the shop floor and soon customers began to realise this and the stamps became less attractive than cheaper purchases. Secondly, you received one stamp for every old 6d you spent. That was the same as two stamps for a modern 5p and to fill one book you needed to collect you needed 1,280 stamps, the equivalent of spending about £32. IN the gift catalogue around the mid-sixties, a colour television required you to redeem 88 books so that meant it had cost you almost £3,000, while a motor boat would have been worth the same amount of money as a small house. So most people could only dream of such luxuries and usually settled for simpler gifts such as a set of mugs or glasses or a nice picture that could be gained by redeeming just one book. Still, even at £32 it was an expensive way to drink your tea! However, what really made Green Shield a thriving business was the fact that many people just couldn't be bothered sticking the stamps into the books and so even though they had accumulated hundreds of them, never redeemed them against for the gifts that were on offer. Eventually, Green Shield was rebranded Argos and the stamps had all but disappeared by the late seventies.

The word 'redeem' not only means to exchange but also to recover or buy back. At Christmas we often sing the carol 'Once in Royal David's City'. You might even come across it today in a service. I love the last verse that say, ' And our eyes at last shall see Him,Through His own redeeming love;For that Child so dear and gentle,Is our Lord in heaven above.' Jesus is indeed our redeemer. He didn't come to earth to lie in a manger, he came to die on a cross to redeem us or in plain English to buy us back for God. Paul in writing to Titus, reminded him that Jesus 'gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own.' The trouble is that gift is waiting for every single person but so many never redeem it for themselves. It's the greatest gift of all, Jesus has paid for it with his blood and yet at this, another Christmas, He is still left waiting to give it to you. This Christmas Day, may there be only one Redeemer on your mind as you not only celebrate his birth but also remember his sacrifice and claim the gift of eternal life. Happy Christmas.