One Man's Trash...

Sitting in the car with my husband while getting the kids situated we witnessed a simple thing.  Two older gentlemen had been sharing a lunch at a fast food establishment, as they left the restaurant, the one gentleman pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, looked at it and then dropped it on the ground.  The second gentleman looked at him in horror.  The right look is worth 1000 words!  That second man chased down the paper, picked it up and deposited it into the trashcan, where it belongs.  I have no idea the relationship between the two men.  I have no idea what their life stories entail, but this made me think: There are two kinds of people in the world, those that don’t really care about what they leave behind and those that do. 

How much easier is it to just toss something to the side that doesn’t seem important to us.  Ignore the reality of a situation.  That was just one piece of trash that man threw on the ground why would that matter?  But if everyone did that the whole earth would be a waste bin.  We have neighbors that don’t take care of their trash and when the wind blows (which is daily and very hard), we find all sorts of trash in our yard- pizza boxes, empty cases of beer, even a trampoline.  They just don’t care.

If we think about this on a larger perspective, how often do we dismiss the homeless person, or the situation that makes us feel uncomfortable because it is easier?  Instead of taking the effort to take care of the situation, we dismiss it and don’t look at it.  This made me think of three Bible stories.  The first story is that of the children running up to Jesus.  His disciples didn’t think that they were important enough for Jesus’ time, but He made time for them and blessed their lives (Matthew 19:13-15).  The second story is the story of the woman at the well.  This woman was a woman that was “bad” she was “trash” in the view of the world.  But Jesus took the time and gave her living water.  (John 4).  The third story this reminded me of was the story of the good Samaritan.  When the priest passed the injured man and the Rabbi passed the injured man, but the Samaritan came and rescued the man, didn’t dismiss Him.  We never heard what that man did with his life, but who knows, he might have gone on to be the leader of the world.  (Luke 0:25-37). 

We never know what God is leading us to do, but it is important that we don’t just throw something off like it is trash.  It is important that we take the responsibility for the actions that we do and see things in the big picture instead of through our finite vision.  Following the Heart o God, you never know whom you are going to touch.