• Home
• News

 I am always willing to gather up something someone else is about to send to the land fill. Sometimes they are just tired of it, it needs a small repair or they have no use for it. This summer an Ikea drawer cabinet (no dents or scratches), an old wood table, a dirt and oil covered bookcase, wine bottle racks from a store and a small kitchen cabinet have all been roadside “finds” along with some lumber and parts of a wooden bench.

 

Just a little time with some soap and water, a few minutes with a sander, a repair or two and a useful item is now in a home, a class room or off to the Habitat Re-Store. The challenge over the weekend was a slightly twisted old weathered board, a full two inches thick and 10 inches wide. Most people would cut it up for a campfire. A little sanding and adjustment to the base I built and now it is a bench ready to be next to the fire not in it. It sits level and is quite comfortable. Gaze at it carefully you see the twist. Look at it from the end you think the supports are crooked. Sit on it and you say, “Please pass the hot dogs and marshmallows!”

 

All this refurbishing has a theological importance for me. First, the projects are a stewardship of resources. Why fill a dump when these items could furnish a home? Second, they represent the importance of sharing our gifts. (One chair, missing a leg, was made complete by the help of friend who has the gift of “working on a lathe.” When I offered to pay him he replied, “No I just do it for fun. Make a contribution to the Haiti Hot Lunch program and we’ll call it good.”)  

 

Thirdly they symbolize for me the potential God sees in us that may not be seen by others. Yet, when given a new chance, provided a new purpose, given a new finish, or placed in a new location, suddenly new value and usefulness is recognized.

 

I pray we all keep our eyes out for the persons in whom others may not immediately see the potential. You may be the person in their path that God will use to transform their life in incredible meaningful ways.

 

The chair and table were headed for a dump, along with the wine storage sales rack. Now, they serve on a porch and in a teacher’s classroom. If furniture could talk, imagine the stories that would be told. People can talk, and their stories we call “a witness.” Our stories are a testimony of how God has reshaped us, seen value in us when others didn’t, placed us in places we hadn’t imagined before and given us a fresh start when we thought it was almost “over.” Now that is Grace. May your summer and the lives you touch this summer know such Grace.

 

~Rev. Benton Heisler

West Michigan, Director of Connectional Ministry 

• Skimmer
• Skimmer (Mobile)