Grace and the Garbage Man

Today is garbage day in our neighborhood in Nashville. As I was rounding up the piles of diapers and other assorted goodies deemed as waste, I was reminded of how nice it is, or rather how quite amazing that it is that we have a garbage man. Think about it. Over the course of many days four humans (our family) living in the same house will accumulate a huge amount of garbage, everything from kids paper that they drew a crazy picture on once, to all the food waste, to the long roll of diapers spit out by the diaper genie. How amazing is it that we get to simply round it all up, put it in a large container that the state gives to us and roll it on out to the corner for someone else to take away and deal with, never to be seen again. What a blessing! How many people throughout this world live on streets that are overflowing with waste? Probably over a billion. This realization reminds me to be very thankful. For some perspective on this from the country of Angola, click here.

I know that I indirectly pay for this service through taxes, but it seems that lately in life these simple blessings have drew me to a deeper state of gratitude toward God for all the conveniences that I have in my life. Things such as: Taking a shower in the morning, or any other time I desire for that matter. Walking to the sink for a glass of water when I am thirsty. Many people in the world walk 10 miles to achieve what I walk 10 feet for. Sleeping in a soft bed at night and having refrigeration so that our food doesn’t go bad. And what about toilets! Hello!

The list goes on and on. In our American culture that is dominated by greed may we be Christians who stand amazed at all the little (maybe a better word would be HUGE) blessings that we have all around and demonstrate the humility that should accompany this realization.

1 Timothy 6:6-8 – But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out of it, but if we have food and clothing we will be content with that.