Garbage Day

I hear the trucks, and I ask God to bless the workers. They are picking up the garbage left at the end of my driveway, and without these fellas showing up when they do, my whole neighbourhood would quickly become a wretched heap of waste. In no time, the entire city would stink with refuse rot.

I sit in my pretty backyard, in my pretty gazebo, with the pretty dotted with floaty clouds sky hanging over head. There is a threat, or is it a promise? of rain. Lately I have begged for rain: like baptism, it washes away the grime, the guilt, the dirt of yesterday. I long for the cleansing of my soiled soul.

I know contentment comes from being in relationship with God. I know that He is the spirit sanitizer. Today, my ears plug and unplug, muting the heavy metal sounds of the garbage truck as the mouth like gate opens and closes to swallow whole what is thrown in there. The cooing of doves and chirping of birds soothe ... a quiet still is welcome.

Is it garbage day for you too?

I no longer take things for granted. I think I have always been grateful, but not the way I ought to be. I have had a lot of time alone, sometimes by choice, but mostly, by circumstance. The used to be people in my life have evaporated, they are vaporous memories. Sometimes I wonder if the me and they ever really existed? it seemed real at the time. If king Solomon and I were to have a conversation, I would tell him, I concur, it is all, vanities of vanities, and chasing after the wind.

I didn't throw away people, did I? I didn't put them in the garbage pail and place them at the end of my driveway for pick-up, did I? Have you, dear reader?

One of the questions that jarred me this morning came from my study Bible: 

"What is one way that you could be mindful to treat every man, woman, and child as a person of dignity?"

What a question ... the only answer I could come up with is pray: I can pray for those that know not God. I can pray for the irksome that act like heathens. I can pray for God to give me His eyesight and hearing ... I can pray 

The grime, the guilt, the dirt of yesterday are the thinking, feeling, reacting patterns that I will to be washed away. I am well aware that I am a work in progress, and thankfully, this reminds me, that so is she, he, them, those guys and gals over there! God will remove what does not belong in us as His children, when we willingly commit to garbage removal and disposal. 

So, I ask you, dear reader, "What is one way that you could be mindful to treat every man, woman, and child as a person of dignity?"

I have some work to do, and maybe you do too.