| Last year after Christmas was over, my friend and I started taking down the church’s Christmas tree. It was an unusual tree and we had a difficult time trying to take it apart. We finally gave up and put it in a box and left it for next year. Well ‘next year’ came a couple of weeks ago when it was once again time to decorate the church and put up it’s Christmas tree. The Pastor and I stood staring at this terrible looking tree and agreed the only thing to be done with it was to throw it away. I felt awful as it was my fault the tree was so badly broken. I asked my daughter to talk to her mother-in-law who is a professional Christmas tree decorator to come and see if there was any way the tree could be fixed, but I knew that was very unlikely. My daughter and her mother-in-law did come and look our broken tree. Then the mother-in-law started working her magic on the tree and with some help from my daughter, they began restoring that tree. In a few hours it was transformed into a beautiful Christmas tree. All it needed was a professional’s touch. Sometimes we look at people and think they are “throw away people”. Many people think that homeless people are just “throw away people”. They are a blight on our community. And there are others who seem to have lost their purpose for living besides the homeless. Those with severe depression that have no desire to move forward with their lives. Or the elderly that feel they have outlived their purpose and wonder why God has not taken them home yet. There are many children and teenagers that feel useless and think of themselves as nothing but trash. How wrong they all are! God loves each and everyone of these people. He loves the homeless people, the depressed, the elderly, the teenagers and the children. Jesus died for each one of them and He doesn’t see any person as useless or a piece of trash. On the contrary, the word of God says in Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.” God has a plan for each one of us. If we are alive, then He has a plan for us. We are not garbage to be thrown out. We are His precious children to be loved by our Creator. So the next time you see someone you think is a “throw away person”, or if you think you are a “throw away person”, just remember my church’s Christmas tree. That tree was going to be thrown out because we thought it was completely unusable. But then a professional came along and put it back together again and made it beautiful for all to see. Let me say it again, remember that tree and know that God has a plan for each one of us and as the Master Builder, He will make something beautiful out of all of our lives if we just let Him. |
| THROW AWAY PEOPLE by Julie Anne Hood |
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