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Garage Sale Treasures by Serena Butler Garage sales are an interesting tradition that we have in America. Take all the junk from your house that you don’t want anymore, drag it outside to your garage or driveway, put price tags on everything, run an ad in the paper and then wait for people to show up and start buying your stuff. It is the perfect example of "one man’s trash is another man’s treasure." I have to admit that when I got my first apartment I furnished it almost entirely from garage sale finds...furniture, pots and pans, food storage containers, glasses, knives, and lamps. I don’t visit many garage sales anymore, but I have a couple of friends who are garage sale experts. They will buy stuff at other people’s garage sales and then have their own and resell the things they just bought. I will see something in one of their homes and ask, "Where did you get that?" Their answer is usually, "At a garage sale." I guess I haven’t learned the art of the garage sale or maybe I am just too impatient to rummage through all the knick knacks, clothes, puzzles, and dishes to find that one item I so desperately need. Recently, I was at a conference with these two friends of mine and we had a couple of hours of free time on Friday afternoon. They had discovered a large neighborhood garage sale just down the street and decided to drive through the neighborhood in hopes of finding some treasures. I was invited along for the adventure. It wasn’t long before purchases were made and the back of the van began to fill up. As I stood in one garage, looking across the variety of items on the numerous tables, a lady began to dig down to the bottom of a pile of old baking sheets. At the bottom of the stack were four commercial grade biscuit trays. I recognized them as the kind I had used during my fast food restaurant employment days. She pulled them out and began examining them. Her eyes lit up as though she had found gold buried in that garage. The trays were covered in baked-on residue. It would take a lot of scrubbing to get them in any shape to use for baking. But the lady was so excited and explained to the homeowner how she had been looking for trays like these for quite a while. "I’ll take them home and clean them up and they will be just like new!" she exclaimed. Where many other people had seen old, dirty, stained, useless trays, this lady had seen the treasure...and the potential. All of us are like those baking trays. We’ve been used and stained by the things of this world. God created us in His image, but then sin entered our lives and left us dirty and crusted over. Some of us feel as though we have been set out on a table, at the bottom of the pile, just waiting to be thrown away. But the good news is that God is searching for us and is ready to scrub us clean. He sees our potential, even when no one else can see it. Most of the time in Christian circles we throw around phrases like, "Washed in the blood" or "plunged beneath the flood" to describe the cleansing power of the blood of Christ. It sounds like one of those ads you see on TV for "miracle cleansers." You just dunk in the soiled item and...presto...it comes out sparkling clean....no effort at all. There is instant cleansing from our sins when we admit our need for a Savior, choose to follow Christ, and make Him the Lord of our life. But there was also tremendous effort involved to pave the way for that cleansing and forgiveness to take place. God, from the foundation of the earth, knew the time would come when Jesus would need to be the sacrifice for all humanity. When that time came, Jesus, not only squished His heavenly, unlimited, eternal being into a tiny baby, but limited Himself even more into an embryo. My mind cannot even begin to comprehend what that must have been like for Him. After nine months He was born. He entered this world just like everyone else. As He grew, He faced the same challenges that we do as we grow: learning to walk; facing those awkward, uncoordinated teenage years; dealing with customers at the carpenter’s shop; leaving home to start His ministry. For thirty years the King of kings and Lord of lords prepared Himself for His upcoming ministry. The following three years were spent performing miracles, rebuking religious leaders, teaching about His heavenly Father, and training disciples. It was hard work. He had no permanent home, He worked long hours, He dealt with difficult people, and He eventually gave His life. During the last week of His life He experienced betrayal, abandonment, an unfair trail, and the worst death known to man. Our salvation was not an easy task. Jesus worked hard to provide the cleansing we need. Throughout His earthly life, He was scrubbing, loosing the grime of sin on our lives. He was working to tear apart the hold that Satan can have. On that great Resurrection Day, when Jesus finally conquered sin completely, He made it possible for us to experience that instant cleansing. But without all the previous work, the instant cleansing would not be possible. I am sure that the lady at the garage sale took her new trays home and then soaked and scrubbed for hours to get them clean. They remained tarnished and stained until she looked for them, bought them, and cleaned them. Those biscuit trays had no power to clean themselves. They needed someone to come along and do the work. We, who are followers of Christ, were also tarnished and stained until Jesus sought us, bought us, and cleansed us. We had no power to do it ourselves. We needed a Savior willing to take the time and spend the energy to accomplish the task. Isaiah 62: 11-12 says, "Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the earth, Say to the daughter of Zion, "Lo, your salvation comes; Behold His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him." And they will call them, "The holy people, the redeemed of the LORD"; And you will be called, "Sought out, a city not forsaken." You have been redeemed from the bottom of the stack. You were sought out because God had not forsaken you. He sees what is underneath the grime and knows the potential. The difference between you and the biscuit trays is that you have a choice as to whether or not you want to be scrubbed clean. If you haven’t already, will you allow yourself to be dunked in the spiritual sink and receive the cleansing that God offers? The work has already been done. You just need the final rinse to wash it all away. The next time you are standing at the kitchen sink, scrubbing a pan, remember what Christ has done for you. As you dip the pan in the water and watch the baked-on residue come free and wash down the drain, say a prayer of thanksgiving. Better yet, sing the words to the old hymn, "What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus! What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!