We live today in a disposable and throw-away society. When something is broken or does not work anymore, we just throw it away and get a new one. When something is old, obsolete or not fashionable anymore, we just get rid of it away and buy the latest fashion, the latest edition or the latest version. Things are made or done in series so that we are always driven to have the highest or latest number in the series. In the process, we inundate ourselves with so much garbage. And we wonder why our lives are so cluttered and messy.
It gets worse when we start applying this mentality to our relationships. When a relationship is broken or does not work, we just chuck it off and get into a new one. And we would describe our relationships as “It is complicated.” Just as discarded things end up being garbage, so do discarded relationships. And we wonder why our lives are so cluttered and messy.
It wasn’t always like that nor is it meant to be so. I remember growing up when we hardly had any garbage to throw away. Bottles and cans were reused as containers or toys. The ones we could not reuse we sold to the junkyard man together with old newspapers and metal scraps. Dead leaves and leftover food were dumped into a pit in our backyard. A good pit would last us at least a year after which we topped it off with soil and dug another pit in another spot in the backyard. Clothes were worn until they were frayed thin and then re-purposed as cleaning rags till they finally ended up in the backyard pit.
God does not make junk. Even a seemingly dead and bare tree blooms again in grandeur and beauty when spring comes. In some culture, the most beautiful and most prized pieces of porcelain or ceramics are those that were broken and have been painfully and beautifully put back together and restored. No matter how badly we sin and make a mess of our lives, God will always heal us and put us back together again. He does not condemn but he is always ever ready to welcome us back in his embrace.
Just as a tree is barest just before the break of spring so does the dark night of the soul come before revelation and salvation.
Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, sir.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’
John 8:1-11