By Victor Sanchez

Anyone that knows me knows that I like old stuff. The rustier the better. Whenever I see a piece of old weathered lumber I can’t help but stop by and see if I could use it for something. Come trash day, on my ride to work, I always drive a little slower to see what catches my eye.

I don’t claim to be an artisan, but I do like to build things out of forgotten relics that came from abandoned and dilapidated structures. There is just something amazing about a piece that has gone hidden under a roof structure or was plastered over, never to be seen until everything came crashing down. But even that’s not enough. It’s not enough to just be discarded. It has to be beaten. To get my attention, to really intrigue me, it has to be weathered. It needs that coat of greyish brown that only comes with time and exposure. It needs a patina. You can force a patina on just about anything, but a true patina goes deep into its core and can’t be sanded off. It’s the evidence of its journey and a testament to its character, and in the right hands, goes from shame to show piece.

It’s one thing to create but another to recreate. Recreation has no limitations. The creator is not bound by clean lines and hiding hammer marks. If anything, these “imperfections” show the finger print of its creator. God made man, and man of his own free will, fell. God could have scrapped that original man and just put a new one into all the beauty that He had already created, but He didn’t. God has been in the business of rebuilding since the beginning. He has taken the old man and made him something new.

What imperfection in your life limits you or you wish you didn’t have?

We look at our lives beaten, exposed and imperfect, and too often, limit what God can do with us because we don’t see what He sees. Too often, we waste time wanting to have been a clean slate. And too often, we doubt what God can do with these scars.

But upon an old weathered wooden cross God began to make something new, and it was through His scars that His work is made perfect. God took man in his weathered state and reclaimed him to Himself. We are re-purposed with old parts. Our rust and grain is visible to the whole world, but there is no shame in it.

Never be ashamed of what dumpster God is reclaiming you out of.

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