What really counts in the crunch ....

I am writing this in mid-March (late as usual!) and the news on the radio is not uplifting.

We are all used to hearing about the dismal toll of closures and job losses, news re-inforced by a stroll down Union Street with it's recently closed shops. For many of us the past few months have provided our first insight into the way our financial machinery works and it has been a shock. It is hard to get a way from the bad news when people we know have lost jobs and homes, and when the headlines scream at us every day. (Want some investment advice? - take out shares in Robert Peston!) The chaos wrought in the financial sector seems to cast a cloud over everything.

But there are things in the news for which we should be thankful.

How about the wonderful people of Northern Ireland? After the awful murders of policemen and soldiers this month they have united to condemn the perpetrators and voice their commitment to peace and stability. I'm sure you are praying and asking God to sustain them in that determination.

How about Jade Goody? Whatever you think of the publicity surrounding her last days, she has been reminding us all that somethings are much bigger and and more important than Sir Fred Goodwin's pension. She wanted to seal her relationship with her partner by getting married. She has made financial arrangements for her children but also made sure they were baptised, made a part of God's family. Today's report is of her wanting to see a last sunset over the lovely Essex countryside. Stardom can make a fool of you, but she has shown that when the ultimate crunch comes she knows what is important - and reminded us too! By the time you read this she may well have died - so think of her and her family and be thankful for all those who see what really matters and life and treasure their family, their ability to love, their relationship with God.

The credit crunch is big news - but those things are bigger and even more important. We can still love. That power is so strong in us, because God's love is the source of what we are and what we can hope for. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."