Scraps

It is hard for me to ever throw a piece of wood away.  I know it can be used again.  No matter how small, beat up, or used it seems to be, as long as I can remove the old hardware or nails, there is potential!  I also know exactly where this sentiment came from.  When I was eleven, my father recycled the wooden crates from our shipment to India to create a limited supply of lumber.  This wood was our supply in making our tree house.  The process was never just a one-time event.  It was supply that gave us half the resources required to remodel, recreate, and endlessly restore.  The other half came from the nails that we pulled, straightened, used, pulled, straightened, and then used again and again.  We knew, with our hearts and souls, that scrap had potential.
It was a great lesson that came without words or explanation.  Everything in life from that point on took on endless possibilities.  Old cars could be restored or become the foundations for custom rods.  Leftover food had the potential for special late night snacks or savory breakfasts.  Worn kitchen towels took on all the earmarks of the perfect car towel and polishing cloth.  Nothing lived through just one life.  There was always potential, opportunity, and imagination to be realized.
For some reason the lesson ended with material things.  It has taken me decades to realize that God created my physical being from dirt!  I am, simply put, a mixture of earth and spit.  It may be the original mother earth and Divine spit, but I am simply water and dirt filled with the breath of God.  It is a mysterious, magical combination that has endless potential with God's power for recreation and restoration.  God often remind us; “You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past.  You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.”  (Isaiah 58.12)  Today's dawn makes it our turn.