May 2nd

Second only to Value Village as a favourite haunt, our local Good Will store is a great place to shop. You never know what you’re going to find. Sometimes there’s nothing you want to buy, but lots of stuff that catches your eye. Usually it’s something that has been pre-loved, like a nice set of computer speakers I bought. Every once in a while, however, you find an object that is brand-spanking, fresh-off-the-assembly-line, never-been-purchased, new.
 One such orphan was a little digital voice recorder I picked up for just three dollars. Fully wrapped in it’s plastic case, never, ever touched by a customer, it was just the thing I had been looking for for quite a while, and I got it for one-twentieth of the cost. It was an unbelievable stroke of luck, or being a good Presbyterian, a little gift from God. (Presbyterians don’t “do” luck.)
As I sit with my little digital bargain sitting quietly on the desk beside me, listening to music from a radio I picked up at Value Village, on speakers donated by a friend, on a desk recovered from the “forgotten” pile somewhere in the bowels of my church, I consider the discards of life. Good Will and Value Village make a good profit dealing with things that folks no longer wanted, or in the case of my recorder, something that was never sold to a customer in the first place. The great thing about second-hand shops is that rather than simply being tossed perfectly away, good usable stuff has the chance of finding new life in someone else’s hands. Furthermore, used objects don’t end up being tossed into a landfill sight.
Our souls can get awfully beat up. We bang them up with little regard for their beauty and holiness. Some folks can get so burdened down with sin, or so lost to their own self-interest, that they might seem of little use or interest to God or their fellow humans. At times souls are damaged beyond the point of recognition by abusers. Sometimes we just don’t care enough about ourselves to feed and nourish our souls as we should.
For God, however, no souls is ever beyond redemption. No matter how sim-damaged, He can make it good as new. No matter how abused, God can restore it to health and wholeness. No matter how much we ignore it and let it got to pot, God can help us reclaim and restore it. No matter what the cause or how poor the condition, there is no soul that God cannot or will not redeem and rebuild.
Mind you, that redemption doesn’t just happen all by itself. God will never intervene without our first asking for help. It doesn’t take a formal request or fancy prayer. Simply saying “A little help, God?” or even “Help!” is all it takes for a divine restoration, but we have to make the first move. God would never impose Himself on us, which is why we have to reach out to Him. He wants us to love Him and acknowledge Him freely, not forcibly. It breaks His heart to see us in the discard pile. But as soon as we ask, He will pick us up, polish us up, and set us by His loving side. At least that’s the way I see it.