This past summer, my sweet husband dedicated some of his time to helping a couple of dear friends with some jobs around their homes that he knew needed an extra pair of hands to accomplish.
So, many a morning, while the temperatures stayed in the low 70's, he'd give a few hours to assisting in what promised to be a tiresome, difficult, lonely project without a helper.
You know what they say, "one man's trash is another man's treasure."
I don't know who "they" might be, but "they" certainly nailed Bay, for in the trashing of our friend's stuff, Bay brought home many a treasure.
An old stove base is becoming a coffee table...
An old door from a stove became a birdhouse.
Old rusted stoves became "vases" for dried weeds or lawn ornaments...
An old metal grate that sits over our bonfire pit in the yard, and has become home to an old coffee pot he rescued.
Some old pots are now planters; and...
...my favorite - an old oil can (beat up, dented, rusty-in-places, and speckled with a few spilled paint spots) has turned into a lamp for our Ezra House.
Truly, all these "treasures" deserved their trip to the metal-reclamation-yard in Durango, yet their salvation gave them new use, new purpose, a re-purposed reason to keep on keeping on.
Where others see "trash," Bay's creative heart saw a new "why" for their existence.
He brought them home, cleaned them up, and gave this stuff places of honor around our house and our yard.
There, they proudly stand, a testimony to all, that beauty, indeed, exists in-the-eye-of-the-beholder.
I love this capacity in him to see usefulness beyond quiddity.
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Three times, now, in just a matter of hours, I have either heard or read this word: consecrate.
It's a great word, rarely used anymore.
Perhaps it feels a bit distasteful - for in this day and age, a commitment to just one-thing is rather passé; and, consecration brings with it a deeper commitment of setting oneself apart for sacred service.
In fact, I found this chart that shows the usage of this word over time in our society:
As I mentioned, rare these days.
This is a stretch from what I wrote above to what I write now, and yet...
The Lord who stooped down from glory to pick us up out of the trash heap, headed for the fiery furnace of the "metal recycling plant," brought us salvation.
He reclaimed us, overlooking our dents, rust, paint splotches, and set us apart to be used with a great purpose: to stand as a testimony to His glory.
We are meant to be "vessels of honor, set apart for His use..."
What the world sees as useless, He sees as beautiful.
The truth is once saved, I've started seeing a pattern.
Some of us tend to forget our why and wander off as we're influenced by other sources (after all, influencers of all variety are at our fingertips with the push of an app on our cell phones).
Maybe we start to think that we were made for more...
Maybe we think we aren't deserving...
Maybe we're just bored...
I don't know what happens; but, over time our new "why" becomes a bit obscure (like the usage of the word "consecrate").
AND YET...with the price paid for our reclamation/salvation how can we set all that to the side and not continue to allow the Lord to do the good work He has purposed through us for His glory?!?
Why would there be no joy in consecration?
The Lord won't force us...
...But with love that SACRIFICIAL, that GAVE ALL? How not?
I love this quote from dear George Muller (these old saints may not have gotten it "all" right, but they sure understood much more than I do -- so much to learn from them):
Thinking it's time for a little personal, internal review and renewed consecration;
and, maybe time to bring back an old word.
