I'm not really sure why, but…… seeing all of this footage and these photos from our friend Ike makes me think of a garage sale. Maybe it's because there is some sort of subconscious correlation between huge messes and garage sales for me?! Or maybe it's because I don't like storms or garage sales. There was a time, when I was a little girl that I loved garage sales. My MiMi would take me with her and she would give me a dollar and I would come home with like twenty things! But those days are over. The love for garage sales is long gone. (On a side note, my MiMi and my husband LOVE garage sales. They have even been known to go garage sale-ing together. We call it GS-ing. They're precious, I know. When Mark and I were dating and MiMi found out that Mark loved garage sales, it was an instant bond for them! The first time that they went GS-ing together, I was told by my MiMi that I had to marry this man!) Thanks for that discernment MiMi ;-)
A couple of days after the storm I was out riding my bike and I got to thinking about garage sales. How did garage sales start? Whose idea was garage sales? Why do people have garage sales? People have garage sales because they are a good way to accomplish two goals at once. One: to make extra money and two: to get rid of stuff. People mostly have garage sales to get rid of stuff they don't want anymore. And if they don't want it anymore, then it is trash to them right? So how is it that people will actually pay money for something that is considered trash to someone? It was a mystery to me. But then I realized: it’s because to the GS-loving darlings like my Mimi and Hubby, it is treasure. For them, they see something that to someone else it may be trash, but to them, it's the greatest prize. They are able take things that may be otherwise useless to someone else and turn it into something new and extremely useful or exquisite. This painted a beautiful picture in my mind of how God views us the same way my GS-ing duo view garage sales. He is able to see in us what other people can’t. He is able to take someone’s trash and turn it into His treasure. When someone or something has tainted us, worn us down and thrown us out, He is there to scoop us up, dust us off and make us new. When to others and sometimes even to ourselves we are useless, He reminds us that our lives are touched by His hand, and we do have a purpose. When the decisions we make lead us to a breaking point, where we feel like we can never be whole again, He doesn’t throw us away. Instead, He picks up the pieces, puts them back together, and we are made whole in Him. Why? Because we are his treasure. His most prized possession. He desires us, delights in us, and rejoices over us. He promised that when we are in Him, we are a NEW creation. Our bodies may not be new, but when we give our lives to Him, he promises to make our souls new; to wipe away all of our sins and forgive every single one of them. I am in awe of that promise. Just as my beloved GS-ers give things a second chance when they pay for someone else’s trash, our God gave us a second chance when he paid the ultimate price through His son by putting Him in our place. A debt we owe! Friends, I don’t think I will ever to be able to wrap my mind around this. In Him, we are re-created, redeemed, and sanctified by the power of the Holy Spirit. I pray that we never take lightly the fact that he always gives us a chance to begin again.
I am reminded of some lyrics from one of my favorite Mercy Me songs:
"And by Your blood that washed over me
By Your grace that came down to kiss me
You have cleaned my heart and my soul
For Your glory You made me
Made me beautiful"
Thank you Jesus for my second chance! Thank you for not throwing me out, but instead seeing a life that is worth salvaging. And thank you for revealing yourself to me even in a bike ride.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” - 2 Corinthians 5:17
“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” -Ephesians 4:22-24