The Neighborhood Trash Lady

I was out on my front porch one sunny morning and noticed something lying in our front yard just beyond the firebush hedge. From a distance, it looked like someone’s discarded napkin.

Gross!!!

I most certainly had not put it there, and this was not a convenient time to go pick it up. Not that I wanted to.

It would probably decompose over time, anyway. So I didn’t feel any need to go out of my way to clean it up.

I also figured that no one else would see it.

Well…I was wrong.

We have a lady who walks through our neighborhood carrying a plastic bag. If she sees any garbage in the road, along the sidewalk, or even up in someone’s lawn, she’ll pick it up.

Sure enough, I was sitting out in my hammock chair a few days later, having completely forgotten about the garbage in our lawn. I glanced up, and there she was up by our hedge, picking up the garbage I had not.

I felt so ashamed.

Granted, I had not put the garbage there. But it was no one else’s mess to clean up; certainly not hers. And yet she was willing to go out of her way to clean up the mess I wasn’t.

So then I tried to convince myself that perhaps she enjoys picking up garbage. After all, she does it every day. But I quickly realized it probably isn’t the garbage picking she enjoys, but knowing she had a part in keeping the neighborhood clean.

How very much like Jesus. He came to earth for the very reason of cleaning up our mess. That mess we’ve convinced ourselves is not our responsibility, or will take care of itself in time. Perhaps some of those messes are garbage others have thrown into our lives.

We make every excuse, don’t want to be inconvenienced, or have gotten so used to the garbage being there we don’t even notice it anymore.

Then along comes Jesus, reaching into that mess with the hand that bears deep scars from doing exactly that. Such grace!

I left my front porch resolved to address any new messes I see. To be grateful for the ones Jesus has come along to clean up for me.

And to be more like the trash lady – willing to get my hands a little dirty to help someone else with their mess. That’s what Jesus would do. It’s what He did on the cross. And it’s what He does for us every single day.

“Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.” Philippians‬ ‭2‬:‭7‬ ‭NLT‬‬