Seeing People

Everyone has had the experience of making a judgement about a person and then realizing we have got them wrong.

A lady called Jean in Salford told me a story of how she got things very wrong. Salford is a warm and vibrant community, but it also has a shadow side of crime and gangs. Most people will automatically be wary when they encounter any group of young men, but especially if they are hooded up in that uniform that says, rightly or wrongly, ‘stay out of our way’.

On this particular Autumn evening, Jean was walking back from Salford Precinct towards Lower Broughton after work. It was around 5.30 and the light was fading. Just before the Cromwell Rd. bridge that crosses the railway, outside the chippy, a group of young men in hoodies, were jostling each other and shouting. It sounded good-humoured but, testosterone being an unstable material, also like this was a group that could easily become a bit too boisterous with passers-by. Jean crossed the road as a precaution and carried on down the opposite pavement. Looking over her shoulder discretely, just to make sure she wasn’t on their radar, she realized that the biggest and loudest of them was her son. All of the others she’d known since they were babies. She knew them to be noisy but gentle boys who wouldn’t cause any trouble beyond normal amounts of mischief.

For someone who takes Christ as a role model, part of the meaning of Christmas is that God invites us to look at people in a different way. ‘Peace on earth and goodwill to all people’ is a challenge to try to do better than to see others as ‘friend’ or ‘enemy’, ‘us’ or ‘them’.

As a combination Christmas good deed and New Year resolution, we could do far worse than to commit ourselves to look at people properly before we label them – or, even better, instead of labelling them.

Wishing you, when they arrive, both a merry Christmas and a
happy New Year.

David Knight
Vicar of Fletching, Piltdown and Sheffield Park