Nothing is Wasted

I don’t know about you, but for me, Thanksgiving brings back so many memories. Yes, long before the “It’s gotta be organic…can you run back to the Whole Foods deli… asparagus is the new greens” bandwagon, what I remember is, “Boy, you better eat your food or you’re not getting up from the table!” Even with ten of us in my family, four boys, four girls, and mom and dad, there was always plenty of food…and plenty left over. Nothing was ever wasted.

Leftovers didn’t last for long with a family like mine. And that turkey? My mother could clean the meat off of those bones better than anyone I know. The last part of the process was making soup, and the boiling of the bones ensured not one piece of meat would be wasted. In fact, my mother even taught us to eat the marrow out of the bone. (I think for medicinal reasons : ) This was before the proliferation of the boneless turkey farm.

God has a plan also where nothing is ever wasted. No hurt, no pain, no mistake in your past, and no struggle that you presently face. In God’s economy, things don’t always “add up.” We see a barren desert, a long winter, and emptiness, like a picked over Thanksgiving turkey. But God sees your lush path, spring around the corner, and endless possibilities for what He can do with your “leftover bones.”

So add this to your list of things to be thankful for. “Our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” 2 Cor. 4:17-18

There’s no place like HOPE,

Stefan