The Junk Story
It doesn’t take much to spark a story at our house…
An unidentified sock on the floor may stir up a saga of a furtive midnight visitor. A misplaced teddy bear may provoke an enthralling zoo mystery, and the mail man’s muddy footprint on the front step may trigger a droll tall tale. So, it comes as no surprise that one of my children’s favorite stopping spots along the lakeside trail near our home is an unbidden junk yard. Hidden behind the tall grass and waving wildflowers lie scattered mounds of washed up waste and discolored debris.
While the site of rust-scarred junk plopped along the lake shore makes my heart sink, my kids see the deposits as precious pearls harboring stories untold. The strange piece of corroded machinery tells the tale of a tractor abandoned by a farmer who feared for his life when the flood waters rose quickly in a time long past. The tarnished sheet of metal hiding beneath the damp carpet of last autumn’s foliage is the ancient tractor’s blade, the abandoned tire it’s once sturdy wheel. Broken bricks whisper rumors of a tiny lake-side village washed away with the farmer’s hope, while weary leather shoes speak of travelers stumbling past on starless nights. The tales are the stuff of drama and dreams, yet my young spielers always spin a happy ending.
Sounds a bit like the gospel, doesn’t it? Tarnished treasures transformed into twinkling tales. Rubbish remodeled by redemption. Scrap sculpted into trophies. We serve a Savior who turns junk into jewels every day. He takes people, like me, corroded by sin, flawed by failure, and rusted by shame and polishes them with His grace.
Then, as only a Master Storyteller can, He weaves each one of us into His story. A yarn of hope spun through all of eternity. A story with a happy-never-ending. The Overflow: “Everyone will share the story of your wonderful goodness; they will sing with joy about your righteousness.”-PSALM 145:7
