STINKY THINGS AND BEAUTIFUL MUSIC

 

Here’s a pretty picture to jump start your week -- a humongous landfill! Probably full of stinky fishbones, and diapers, and rusted metal, plastic, warped shoes, bubble wrap, and ... well, you get the idea. Makes you wanna sing, doesn’t it? That’s why I go visit landfills, to be inspired with ideas for the Broadway musical screenplay I plan to write someday.

A few months ago, I watched a documentary about slum children in Paraguay. Some genius musician went to the local dump site, pulled out ooky discarded objects, and fashioned musical instruments. The children were taught to play, and a band was formed. Lives were changed, both the children’s and those who watched and listened to them play.

In pondering that rancid pile of trash, I had an invigorating thought -- that used to be me. And now you’re thinking, “How offensive! How dare anyone say they’re trash, God doesn’t make trash! I am certainly not trash!”

Well, I partly agree. “In the beginning ...” God did not create trash. He created perfection. However, due to the infamous Adam/Eve fiasco, all subsequent generations were born spiritually dead ... and stinky. How do I know this? Well, my creator God told me so. I was “dead in trespasses and sin” (Ephesians 2:1). My heart “is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9). I was once unrighteous, unable to inherit the kingdom of God, due to my sin (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). Yes indeed, I was born into a spiritual landfill, ...

But God! When I was dead, He made me alive, pulled me out of the sin-landfill, raised me up with Christ, and seated me with Him in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:5-6; Colossians 2:13). I’m included with all other refurbished sinners, part of the Lord’s well-designed plan. How wonderful to know that God uses the “dead” and foolish and weak, to set into the Body. The disciples were only uneducated fishermen, but they had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13) and were changed.

 

My Father, how truly awestruck I am when I consider that I was born spiritual garbage, but you washed, sanctified, and justified me in the name of my Jesus and in the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:11). You did that with me, and for me, so that I would be made useful. In Your hands, with Your Spirit, because of Your Son, I am a chosen instrument to play Your “music,” for Your glory and Your purpose. I could not feel more blessed!

TIME MARCHES ON

 

I find it very interesting that younger people want to know what they’re gonna look like when they grow old, and then they find an “app” that allegedly foists that horror show upon them. I’m now at the age when I don’t really NEED an app, or any imagination, to see what I’ll look like when old, ’cause that ship has already left the dock. Although it hasn’t reached the high seas yet.

 

You may be aware of a book, then a couple of movies, about a spectacularly gorgeous (fictional) young man named Dorian Gray. His portrait was painted, and Dorian bemoaned the fact that he would grow old and the portrait never would. Through some fluke that only addled authors can beget, the portrait instead grows old and hideous as Dorian lives the hedonistic lifestyle and stays young and purty.

I’ve no clue what the author’s motivations were in writing this, but for me, I instantly think of the many-many-MANY instances in Scripture that speak, not of age progression, but rather of sin progression in people’s lives (Ezra 9:6; Hosea 13:2; Revelation 18:5). Think about that for a moment -- how would YOU like to see a portrait that exhibits, in glorious psychedelic color, every-single-little-and-big-sin you’ve ever committed in your life. That would be an unbearable sight.

 

Now think of this -- this hideous “portrait” is what the Lord God sees when He looks down at every unrepentant sinner. Stew in that for a minute.

 

This is what the Lord Jesus Christ took upon Himself on the Cross, and nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:14). He washed me from my sins in His own blood (Revelation 1:5). He did this so that, when God looks at me, a repentant, born-again believer, all He sees is His sin-cleansed child. When He looks at me, He sees the purity of His Son, Christ.

 

And it doesn’t stop there! The progression continues, in the form of holiness and sanctification. As I continue through my earthly life, any sins I commit, after confessing them to God, the blood of Jesus continues to cleanse me from all sin (1 John 1:7-9). And the purpose of all this is to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).

 

Father God, thank You for pointing out that it’s really not about me at all, about how pretty I look. It’s about You being glorified, about me making You look wonderful to others. What a merciful Savior You are, making me clean, keeping me clean, and making me Your child.