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Kind of an embarrassing confession here, but I totally have a thing for garbage. Not just any old rubbish, but things with good bones that can be transformed into treasures. It just makes my soul sing, helps me to tap into the Lord’s abundance.

I used to just love Mrs Butterworth syrup bottles, the glass ones that ended in 1999, because they could be decorated into lovely ladies with bits of ribbon, flowers and modge podge. I’d make fancy hats and bonnets, too. I’d post a picture but I gave them all away, which is yet another way of tapping into the Lord’s abundance.

Give it away, let it go. Fishes and loaves. What we grip too tightly doesn’t increase in value, but if you toss it in the pond it ripples out and makes waves.

I’ve never perceived any of these commercial icons to be racist at all, in fact there is often a story behind them of strong women overcoming incredible odds, and going on to thrive and find some success in the world. It annoys me that we have tried to sanitize history, because in the process we have also erased the heroism, the strength of some of these women and oddly in the process, stolen their dignity.

I’m not the least bit embarrassed about women who took what they had and made something out of it, even if what they had been dealt was things like war, slavery, blackface, minstrel shows, or even prostitution. No pearl clutching on my end, I am just delighted to discover people who survived and still managed to keep the bitterness of the world from infecting their entire soul.

It also annoys me to be lectured today about recycling and the environment. I have never thrown out a grocery bag in my entire life. LOL, perhaps I should have, but that’s an argument for another day! The point being, I was already drinking out of jam jars long before anyone was even born.

Recently I was forced to retire some old towels, on account of the fact that I wouldn’t even feel right about gifting them to a desperate person. They went into the rag bag to begin their new life as tools for cleaning up cars and lawn chairs.

Some of my favorite “trash” is the growing kind, compost and seeds. When the kids were small we used to toss out their October pumpkins in an empty flower bed and let it rot and decompose until spring when the magic happens. Delightfully this year our grandkid painted a lovely pumpkin and left it for us, and sure enough the magic has happened, baby pumpkin starts. If the slugs and snails don’t get them and the creek don’t rise, we shall have a pumpkin patch this year.

The picture of columbine above is another volunteer, more a casual tossing of some weeds and compost into an empty spot without much hope or planning. A bit funny, the columbine we deliberately planted is a bit small and spindly, but the unintentional one is thriving and beautiful. Sometimes it’s good to just let yourself be surprised.

There’s a lot to be learned about the Lord from garbage which is perhaps an odd thing to say, but it is true. He is not like us, He does not throw things away. He does not separate some people into treasures and others into trash. He does not abandon us no matter how worn out and shabby we become. The Lord I know is all about abundance, renewal, and making something out of nothing, like the way He once took some dirt and breathed life into it.

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