"While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
I
remember the day I picked up two boxes of Barbie dolls at a garage
sale. My husband must have thought I was crazy when I spent just about all we had left in the budget
on them. (Thankfully payday was only two
days away!) I had no idea what was in
the boxes, but I handed the man $25.00, piled them in my car and drove away
with a new treasure.
That night, I took my first look at that investment as I unpacked the boxes. What a mess! A Ken doll with chewed up legs and a missing arm, a Barbie head with no body, dolls I didn’t recognize, old clothes
and accessories that seemed faded and worthless! It didn't help that my husband sat three feet away from me while I
scrubbed layers of dirt off these old things for who knows how long. He had to be wondering why he married such a crazy person! I remember wishing I'd waited until
the next day when he was at work. That way I could hide the grime of some of it! But Barbies hold intrinsic value sometimes,
and maybe there was value hiding underneath some of this dirt and grime.
The
pressure was getting to me as I scrubbed, Which is why when I found a pair of small
red shoes requiring no cleaning, I took a picture, went to the computer and
listed them on the spot. Only in my hurry I
accidentally added an extra zero to the starting bid. immediately I realized what I did and went to change the amount from $20.00 to $2.00. However, to my surprise they were already purchased! I was shocked! (Apparently, if the bottom image says "Made in Japan" , its a big deal!) Who knew that a tiny pair of red plastic
shoes would sell for more than the real pair I had sitting in my
closet! So, I listed a few more things.
The Barbie without a body…she sold for $52! And that chewed-up Ken
doll? Someone purchased him for
$73! There were clothes that sold by the outfit for over $150, cars and Francie dolls for even
more! (turns out the unknown dolls were Francie and Midge... and also a big deal!) In the end, my little investment of
twenty-five “junkie” dollars turned into over $2,500!
Now
you might be wondering why I shared this story on a Saturday’s Blog. After all, the story's interesting but why put it into a spiritual formation blog? Here’s why: To many, those Barbies looked like old, dirty,
discarded junk. I certainly had no idea
what they were worth until I knew what someone was willing to pay for them. The people who bought them understood their
real value. And that’s MY story! It’s YOUR story too! ...For God SO LOVED the world that He gave his one and only son...He became the highest bidder.
Like the dusty treasures I used to find for EBay, we are like diamonds in the rough. Each of us hold intrinsic beauty and value that come from being HIS. But, much like what I found in those boxes, we may look at our life and see all the mess and blemishes and devalue our worth. sometimes the pressure gets to us as we try and scrub
out blemishes by acting the part of someone who has it all
together; we want to hide like I wanted to hide the dirty boxes from my husband. But there is something more profound than our mess. Even when our circumstances and broken ways of living shroud us in muck, God finds crazy joy in redeeming our story.
Scripture says it this way,
…”He
rewrites the text of my life when I open the book of my heart to His eyes…He
makes my life complete when I place all the pieces before him…He stood me up on
a wide-open field, and I stood there saved, surprised to be love.” (Ps 18: 25,21,20 – in that order)
What
are the messy parts of your story?
Ask
God to show you how to open up your heart to His eyes
Let
him love you in the mess, tend to the shame, and lead you into something/someone
new.
