This Old Dresser

Maybe it’s because in the place where I live, we discard old, broken, damaged or just perfectly good but ugly things without a second thought…

In the place where repair is a lot more time-consuming, more hassle and more costly than just replacing the old with the new…

So, one would think that Jeff came from a different planet... 

When someone like Jeff comes along, and describes

what somebody else labeled as

THAT piece of JUNK!

- which I later tucked away in the guest bedroom,

too embarrassed for anyone else to see it -

But he… he describes it using words like

FABULOUS! 

And

GORGEOUS!…

as if utterly blind to its woeful actuality and only seeing its far off future potential …

…I think,

 I need more people like Jeff in my life…

Someone who is undaunted by the damage…

By scarred, ugly exterior…

Someone who is not intimidated by the enormity of the restoration task ahead…

Someone who, without blinking an eye, says,

Of course it’s worth it!

The labor.  The mess. Battling the desire to quit…

Someone who doesn’t leave me alone to figure it all out, but comes alongside and not just says but does the work, We can do it! It’s no trouble at all…

Someone who makes me think,

If an old beat up dresser is worth it in someone's eyes....

Worth the trouble....

Worth the mess...

Could it be.... that a person – an old, damaged, broken, beat-up man or a woman, 

like you and me  – 

is worth the trouble....

Worth the mess...

Worth the time?

Perhaps it’s only because we live in the world where old, broken, damaged things… and people… are treated as junk… easily discarded without a second thought… replaced by a newer model with barely a shrug…

...that people like Jeff give me just the right gentle kick in my perspective pants…and I look at the old beat-up dresser, and old beat-up men and women (including the one in the mirror) with a pair of brand new perspective eyes....

A bruised reed He will not break and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. Isaiah 42:3