When I was a kid our neighborhood had rival schools, the public schools and the local parochial school from Holy Redeemer a Catholic church. I was a public school kid and didn’t like the “Redeemer” kids because on the way to school they would knock the heads off the snowmen we made and other such “ atrocities”.
Of course I have no memory of any like behavior on our part.

As a result the word ‘redeemer’ just brought up negative thoughts, unconsciously. So in my twenties when my pastor spoke on the subject of Christ our Redeemer, my ears perked up, and I was truly blessed by gaining an understanding of what that meant.

He emphasized that in a large part that meant turning what was bad, hurtful, evil into what was good. He used real life examples of criminals, prostitutes, critically ill and wounded people, druggies, abandoned children, etc. people who were or became Christians and completely praised God for the mercy and grace they experienced and the joy they had. But the most significant thing about that on a larger scale was the witness they bore to the world about our redeemer God who brings good from evil. It was such a lesson for merely ‘sit and soak’ Sunday only worshippers who
realized their own comfortable testimonies lacked the same gratitude and message.