Yesterday during my devotion time I was praying for someone concerning the path this person is walking down, the reality of the darkness they are in, and the pain in the Father’s heart because of it. I began meditating on the thought of how broken people are, and the horrible pain that they go through, but then also the amazing redemptive work that God is capable of creating out of the most marred life. Brokenness and pain are a part of the human condition; no one can avoid the fact. As humans though we have a tendency to put a measurement on the brokenness, or rather sinfulness of person, creating flawed value scale. I.e. a leader of a church has more hope of a righteous life than the single mother, and the single mother more the the drug addict or prostitute. God does not see things this way though, and it’s because my God functions in the practice recycling. Just look at the apostle Paul’s life, and countless others in Scripture.
Living in the Northwest, I’m very aware of recycling because being green is the ‘to do’ thing. We take what’s been used up and we make new useful things out of it. This is a beat of the heart of the culture here, and I’m more than convinced that this stems from a piece of God’s character. God takes the most broken, lost and discarded of people and makes something new out of their lives. He takes the pain that overwhelms us, recycles it, and it becomes an enhancer or fertilizer for our lives, making great fruit the final product. God is the ultimate recycler. He can and will take any yielded life and make a new creation out of it (2 Cor. 5:17). God does not see trash. To Him everything in us is recyclable. He lets no pain go to waste. Every experience in our lives He can melt down, and in that refining process bring forth new life. It is truly amazing. The lost cause, the dirtiest soul, or the hopeless wreck; all have a value within them that God can recycle, and SO desires to recycle.
Too many souls are discarded and end up in a spiritual landfill, but this is not where they belong. Who am I too look at someone’s messed up life, judge it, and toss it out with the garbage. I want eyes like my Father who sees no useless trash. Every piece of every person is recyclable, redeemable, restorable. If you know someone whose life seems hopeless, or if you yourself feel like this, hear me, God cannot see anyone that way. He sees through the blood of the cross, and that blood cleanses and redeems any life, no matter where we judge it to fall on man’s faulty value scale. I want to be like my Father and see the recyclable value within a person no matter how far into the garbage life has thrown them. I want to be used by God to delve into such places, and find the hidden treasure that God can create from any and every life that is placed in His hands. God is green and I will be too.
Truth