Do you have your own shopping bags?  I may be telling my age a bit here, but I remember when the Reduce/Reuse/Recycle phrase became vogue. You’d see a few people carrying the fishnet looking bags into the grocery story, but the general population still blew through the paper and plastic bags.  Today, every business around seems to be printing their logos on shopping bags and I see as many people carrying their own shopping bags into my grocery store as not.  People are just now starting to take them into other stores. We’re beginning to recognize the value in reusing something.
This morning I read an article about a young man in my community who was taking discarded church pews and recycling them to create furniture.  His pieces are beautiful.  When asked about what he does, he said, “The pews were set to be thrown away.  I’ve rescued them, taken them apart and put them back together in a useful way.”  He has found value in something thrown away and has creatively turned it into something beautiful.
None of this surprises God.  He is the original recycler.  Before we even recognized a need to recycle or reuse things, God took the broken, the stained, and the discarded recognizing the beauty others failed to see [Romans 5:8].  He still does so today.  2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”  Thankfully, the Lord sees value in us and is willing to rescue us, like the old church pews, and turn us into something beautiful.
Are there some stains in your life you can’t seem to clean up on your own?  Don’t fret. The Lord can make you whiter than snow [Psalm 51:7]. Does your life need to be rescued and reworked into something beautiful?  He is willing if you are. Will you allow Him to shape you and mold you into a new creation? Isaiah 64:8 recognizes not only that He is capable, but He desires to create a masterpiece in you, “O LORD, You are our Father. We are the clay, You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.”  Let the ultimate Recycler have His way in your life. The results will be stunning.