Down In The Dump

Oney, Eli and I went to the dump this afternoon. Its a beautiful drive to get there, but like another world when you arrive. Blue waters along the coast, green mountains inland, jerk stands, fish stands, and cook shops beside the road... and flies and stink at the destination. We had the joy of parking next to a garbage truck as it unloaded... Yummy! There were dogs looking for scraps, flies trying to fly up the ol' nose, and about 8 people digging around in various piles of rubbish looking for some sort of "treasure" that they can use or sell for just a little bit of cash. As Oney and Eli began unloading our truck it took no time at all for a few treasure hunters to come our way. There were a few pieces of aluminum siding that they latched onto quickly. I thought one lady was going to come to blows with a man who tried to take her "treasure".

What an existance. How spoiled are we as Americans? I have been to a number of landfills in Oklahoma and have seen some pretty good stuff... children's toys, kitchen utensils, plates, bowls, cups, bags of clothing, that people have just tossed out because they no longer wanted it or it did not sell at the garage sale. I even saw a guy one time unloading a trailer of living room and bedroom furniture. Somebody asked him what was wrong with it. He said nothing was wrong. His wife had just redecorated and painted the house and wanted new furniture that matched, so he was making room by getting rid of the old furniture. Seriously? Today I saw nothing of value as I looked around the dump. No toys. Nothing for the kitchen. Nothing for the bedroom. All I saw was rubbish. But in all those acres of trash, a small handful of people found something more than trash. They saw potential.

Isn't that what Christ does with us? When we are at a point that we have no value to the world. When we are no better than a big pile of garbage, when we waste what He has given us, when everything in life seems hopeless, Christ comes too us. We may not be a treasure when He picks us up, but He dusts us off, polishes us up, makes us shine like a city on a hill. He turns us into a treasure. Do you ever look at others and place a lesser value on them because of the way they look or act, how they dress, where they live, what they drive, where they work? Remember that the Lord sees the potential in them that we can't see. Christ is just waiting to turn them into a treasure.

Are you down in the dump? Let Jesus make you shine!