Daily Devotions
Picking Through the Garbage
Reading for November 4th: John 1-2
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...
John 1:14
When I visited Manila years ago, someone pointed out to me a large mountain of garbage downtown called "Smoky Mountain." Tens of thousands of people lived there. The squatters who live there do nothing but pick through garbage all day looking for food to eat or for scrap metal to sell. Many are born, live, and die there without seeing anything but the filth of that mountain.
The Bible describes the world as a spiritual garbage dump. It speaks of the "filth of the nations," the "pollutions of the world," the "corruption that is in the world" (Ezra 6:21; 2 Peter 2:20; 1:4). Even our righteousness is described as "filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6).
Yet God came down to this world. Jesus did not turn up his nose at us. He ate with tax collectors and sinners (Luke 5:27-32). He was on a rescue mission. He endured the stench and smell to pick through the garbage to find us and save us.
I think about my fellow laborers in Manila who preach the gospel on Smoky Mountain and in the prisons and leper colonies. They don't despise the people for the way they look or smell. They remember that they too were found by Jesus lying hopelessly on the trash heap.
We should think about this every day! We were worthless and vile, yet he came looking for us! He died for us! The next time we are confronted by the stench of a sinner, we should remember we once smelled that way. We should tell them about a Savior who found us and who has been picking through the garbage to find them.
We have no idea how bad our sin must smell to you, O God! Thank you for cleaning us up with the blood of your Son.
