Reuse, recycle, restore, replace?
As time goes on, some things get replaced, including clothes and household stuff you outgrow (physically and in terms of style) and those that plain wear out (physically and in terms of style).
Ideas sometimes need replacing. Convictions of a flat earth. Belief in your own infallibility. Toxic theologies of convenience. Mistaken fears of a wrathful god.
During the organic process of becoming, a butterfly replaces her cocoon with flight- and photo-worthy beauty. A plant replaces lovely flowers with ripe fruit. An artist, scholar, or baker replaces budding attempts at production with expertly finished projects.
But some things don't need replacing. A chipped cracked dish in a color and design that still makes your heart sing, but you have similar safely usable ones. A once necessary fence that has rotted and (surprise!) symbolizes the fact your garden borders and family boundaries have grown.
How about our own previous circumstances we hanker after, yet we haven't yet allowed God's transformative replacement happen in our current time and place? Kintsugi replaces cracked and chipped with unique newness. How much more wondrous is God's recreative replacement?
Lovely post! Thank you for sharing. I liked your thoughts about some things do not need to be replaced. Something to think on.
ReplyDeleteMay as well replace it,
ReplyDeletefor it has gone out of style.
Sure, it may have life, and fit,
but friends will nod and smile
in a condescending way
(they always knew you were a geek),
and with a laugh will put-downs say,
like, 'That is SO last week!',
but I know you will shake it off,
like water from a Mallard's back,
and while they stand with those who scoff ,
you will pity them the lack
of character that will not go
against the misdirected flow.