One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

Yesterday at our church gathering, we were blessed to have a baptism service during which two of our teenagers were baptized. It was an awesome and emotional time of seeing and hearing about Jesus transforming lives. Caleb was quite interested in the big pool in the middle of the room. “Can I go swimming?” “No,” we replied, “it’s for baptizing people.” That answer made no sense to him, of course, so Jon sat down and talked through what baptism is with Caleb. It was a sweet moment to watch, as father and son discussed what it was to live for Jesus. At the end Caleb decided, “I want to live like Jesus.” How cool is that? (Really, I think he just wanted to get in the “pool”, and if he gave that answer like the teens had, maybe he’d get to.)

Jon used that little conversation with Caleb during his worship leading, and said something like how we often make things quite complicated as Christians, but really all it should come down to is that we just want to live like Jesus.

Jon and I were able to go to Kingdom Meal Ministry again yesterday, and I witnessed the coolest and most unique “living like Jesus” example I’ve seen in a while. After the meal was done, Jon and I were walking around with a trash can, cleaning up after people. We stopped and chatted for a minute with this one man, and then we scooped up his stuff and continued on with our quest to find and throw out all the trash in the room. Some time later, this same man ran to Jon, and was saying something with a look of great concern on his face. I couldn’t hear at this point, because I was at another table. Jon quickly pulled the trash can to the side, and nearly tossed himself into it. Turns out that the man had taken out his partial retainer and wrapped it up in a napkin while he ate so as not to gross out anyone walking past. Very thoughtful. During our conversation with him this had slipped this man’s mind, and so we just scooped it up with everything else. So, Jon went through each dirty plate and napkin in that (industrial sized) trash can (and they were VERY dirty – it had been greasy, fried chicken, and mashed potatoes night) until he found this man’s retainer. The man offered to help, but Jon let him know that he didn’t need to get his hands dirty, that Jon would find it for him…and he did!

This was such a beautiful picture. It reminded me of foot washing, where someone would get down to the lowest and dirtiest part of another and lovingly and gently wash them. My husband was a gorgeous image of Jesus for me last night, and I would imagine for that man. There was preaching going on…not through words, but through living and loving.