Reclaimed

I don’t know about you but I am a proud garbage recycler. It’s a bit of a joke in the family, the boys scream “Don’t look Mummy” if they see an old chair or dresser on the roadside because they know that if there is room in the back of the car I may just stop and grab it because there’s almost always value to be found there.

I remember once I was walking home from Kaleb’s school when he was in JK and I found a lime green disgusting dresser. I called Tim and begged him to leave work for five minutes to come pick me up. Grudgingly he did, and then later after work he took me to the Home Depot where I bought a can of paint and some fancy handles. Now I have a beautiful bedside table/dresser.

In November I was walking with a friend and across the street from my house was a dresser with a mirror in it. She helped me carry it the short walk home and as you can see from the image at the top of the page it now sits on the stairs, a home for the most played board games in our home. There can always be value found in the discarded, you just have to have eyes to see it.

I was listening on Audible this morning to the new book by Max Lucado called Jesus. He was speaking about his life when he was a new Christian and he said this:

“Jesus didn’t accept my behaviour, all that had to go. He didn’t gloss over my sin, he accepted me, what he could do with me. He didn’t tell me to go clean up and then come back, he said come back and I’ll clean you up”

It struck me as I listened to him speak because immediately I pictured the many ‘garbage finds’ that I have restored over the years both here and at my Moms house. When I think about my own life I can see myself sitting out on the curb, tossed away, no use to anyone, trash. Jesus came along and saw potential, saw the ‘good bones’ and he picked me up and carried me home, cleaned me up and placed me in his home with a new purpose. No longer trash or unusable, restored, reclaimed, loved.