As the weather turned quickly, I ran out to throw the last of my kitchen scraps onto our compost heap.
Broken eggshells, curling layers of carrot skins, a soft, oozing zucchini discovered under plastic in the bottom of the vegetable bin are folded in with damp coffee grinds, orange peels and banana skins. The slimy, odorous decay rises despite the whipping wind.
Hastening back across the deck, I ran from the stench and slammed the door against the gust of the storm. Pounding rain will wash over it tonight, diluting its pungence and embarking on the process of composting.
I am that.
Jesus has taken the slime in my life, poured His loving kindness and grace over it, and gently reminds me that He will use the dirty scraps for good if I allow Him to cover me.
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. In that day you will say: “Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.” Isaiah 12.3-6
He then turns those things under and works beneath the surface. Those moments of raw candor, sharp words, the toe-tapping impatience, the attitudes of ingratitude, the short fuses, they all tumble into the grass clippings of selfishness and miraculously decompose under the influence and covering of His love.
His work has taken time in me and too often the hard scraps resisted the need to turn over.
But as seasons change and the compost bin gets churned, so has my life. Storms pound at it and somehow, eventually make it more pliable to the work He came to do.
God’s grace whispers to me, birthing new seasons of spring…prodding me to reach into the rich black soil of my scraps, infused with nutrients, full of life, and use it to nurture the roots of the next season of growth in my garden.
Every year I have scraps to throw on the heap, and every year His love tills my soul. That’s grace.
How about you?