Reclaim

“Sometimes things of value are hidden looking like waste.”

Loren Thornburg

Recycling is all about using again that which appears to be waste. There is still use in it that we can’t always see right away. Things once claimed to be waste have been reclaimed useful. This means more than paper and plastic, but the things in our lives as well. The risk that seemed to have been a failure, the relationship that is no longer, the job search, the efforts with no apparent return...we see it all as waste. What if there is something more in the midst of seeming failures? What if you saw all you learned in the midst of it and the opportunity that came from it? Those things are priceless. They are more than usable but highly valuable. What else in your life might be able to be re-claimed as valuable?

“God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.”

Romans 3:24 Message

“My recovery is Christ,” said a well-known baseball player in the midst of his exposed falling to his addiction. Recovery means to get back or regain something lost, to make good, to regain strength, to regain a better state and to reclaim from a bad state. Without Christ we are in a bad state. Yet, as we see in Romans God reclaimed us through Jesus Christ. He came into our mess, into our waste and restored us to where he intended us to be. That restoration means we were redeemed. We were separated, only to be saved by a price. Nothing else could set us free from staying in that place and there was nothing we could do about it. Only God could and He did. Not because He had to but out of “sheer generosity” He made it right. It was a “pure gift.” Christ is in the restoration business. He did and continues to reclaim us from our mess. Look to Him for your recovery. He is our recovery.