Others' Trash--My Treasure!

Yard saling is not something I've taken much time to do in the last few years, for the simple reason

that I do not need more stuff!

However, when I stopped at an estate sale one street from us and found two totes of quilting strips and fabric, (someone else's scraps and leftovers they were getting rid of) I couldn't keep from purchasing them at just $5 a tote! (Especially when I know that just one yard of cotton fabric can cost $5-$9 a yard.

I could just envision various homemade things like potholders and aprons and baby bibs made from these cute strips. Later, I sorted the strips according to color. My goal is to help Hannah learn to sew by using some of these.
Then last Monday the children wanted to go to the cattle auction to see about rabbits, and I stuck around to bid on a few items, including this lovely quilt with shams, (which I got for $5),

a HUGE box full of several pairs of jeans that were Danny's size, and all kinds of very nice bedding, including sets of sheets and pillowcases and mattress covers. (I got the whole box for $6 after the auctioneer sold it to me accidentally when I had quit bidding at $5. I went ahead and gladly paid the $6 and am I ever glad! I had no idea there were so many nice sheets and things underneath the jeans!)
Here the sheets are, proudly waving in the western breezes after I laundered them.

 I also hung around at that auction because I wanted to bid on a box full of old hymnals, Favorite Hymns of Praise.
We've had Worship and Praise ones for so long, that I thought some "new" hymnals would freshen our family worship hymn times.
 
I ended up getting that box of hymnals for just $1, plus five other boxes of Christian books for just $1 a box. There were no other bidders.  This book quickly caught my eye--and it is fast becoming a rich treasure as I read snatches of it when I can. It's particularly helpful because of being written from a Wesleyan perspective, when there are so few books along this line in our persuasion.

I guess it is thought that if you have any problems, you are just carnal, and that is that.
So I am afraid that many people end up giving up because an experience of entire consecration doesn't fix all their issues--like church leaders and flaming evangelists claim it will.
They leave our churches in droves because they aren't good enough.
Most of us--though apparently not those church leaders or evangelists--
have broken wings somewhere, like this lotion holder I found in another box of a pretty, matching bathroom set I found at the auction.

 In it were these towels, wash cloths, and bathroom sets with butterflies. ( I got this whole box for $5.)

I found the broken piece, and carefully packed it in with the rest of the set to be glued on later.

I didn't throw away the lotion bottle because it had a broken wing. 

From a distance, I hadn't noticed the broken wing on the ceramic butterfly.

It had looked so pretty from a distance.

And if we could just accept it, each one of us has a special beauty not only to God, but also to people whose eyes are open to loveliness and value in others.

Not everybody notices and criticizes every thing wrong with you, 

every broken wing--

and not everyone will throw you out just because of your broken wing.

It's so easy to think other people have it altogether when we observe them on the platform or at a distance--until we get to know them.

Then we come to realize that they have their broken wing, too.

Every one of us has a broken wing somewhere.

But every one of us also has value.

Jonathan saw this wooden ladder out in somebody's yard the other day, with a "FREE" sign on it, so he brought it home.

You can see what we did with it!
Another person's trash became our treasure to make our front porch beautiful!
And God is so good at that.
What we think is trash becomes His treasure!
Lord, open my eyes to see value in that which You value,
and to see beauty and potential in the people that You care about!