The garbage company had a particular slogan painted on the sides of their trucks that read: “Your garbage is our bread and butter.” It was their way of conveying the message that they made their living out of collecting and disposing of the unwanted items placed in the trash cans they picked up. It is strange to liken our garbage to someone else’s bread and butter. The two descriptions don’t seem to match. Yet when it comes to the Lord, this slogan makes a lot of sense.

The Lord doesn’t see any of us as garbage. We may be looked upon as garbage by others. Some would throw us away. And we ourselves have made decisions that brought rottenness and spoil into our lives and into the lives of others, but the Lord still wants us!

Recently someone shared about the lost sheep that the shepherd sought. They commented that because the shepherd left the 99 sheep to go after the one that was lost, that lost sheep was (for the moment) more the Shepherd’s focus than all the others. The Lord cares for the lost sheep. He loves and cherishes each one of us.

He desires all of us to come to a change of heart, turn from our sins, and turn to Him. It was “while we were yet sinners” that Christ died for us. He loved us when we were unlovely, undesirable, and unworthy. Jesus stands at the hearts’ door of our personal lives, knocking that we might open to Him and receive Him as our Savior and Lord. He will come in and make His home in us. He will forgive and cleanse us. He will transform us by His power into new creations. He will love us and fill us with His Holy Spirit. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16.

Pastor Greg Brownell

United Brethren Church

Dayton