Bent Nails Still Have Life In Them… Hello weekend readers. Lately I’ve been musing on my life in this stage of 71 years old and quickly turning 72 in July! Not in a wrong way, but thinking forward and hoping to have some more years with Al, family, etc. Then I had to step back and think of my mom, who, in this year will become 99 years old. She is spry and vibrant and she has no intention of sitting on the couch until her ticket comes in—that’s her words, not mine!

My mom loves rummage sales. You can’t get her out of them. All of us kids just say, “Mom, do you really need this? There is no room in your garage for it!” Her answer is always “but someone else might need it and look at some of this stuff, it still has life in it.” OK, there was her incredible outline of life: “If you have life in you keep on going.” She’s right!

I am sharing this story about an ‘Uncle’ who really wasn’t our ‘real’ uncle but we thought he was the best and he was almost 90! He was a good friend of my dad, helping at our resort and when my folks sold it and found a home in town, he was right there helping to move, fixing a lot that needed, etc. He had a saying that my dad loved, “Roy, my dad told me this when I was a little kid so remember this: “Never pass an old barn without seeing its potential. The weathered boards, even the bent nails, can be reused to make something new.” Then I remembered that my dad’s grandpa was just like that, too! If he had to re-do his chicken-coop or fencing, etc., he would take out all the nails—even the rusty ones and straighten them out, clean them and use them again. It irritated my grandma like crazy–she hated clutter, but grandpa would tell her, “Mimi, they still have life in-im!” Grandma would shake her head and go to her sewing table. About that table and all her sewing stuff? Yep, she would do exactly what grandpa would do, nothing was thrown away if it was useful!

How about you? I know for me that in my twilight years, I am not going to stop doing things unless I can’t do them. And like my mom, I will find something else to work on and enjoy. And the reason I say that is because it was the Apostle Paul who said it! In Ephesians 2:7-10 from the Message Bible, Paul says: “Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.”

That means NOTHING in our lives is wasted! We are not discarded and we are not beyond repair because we are God’s handiwork and God sees the beauty and purpose for each and every one of us. That Scripture reminded me that ‘The world may see something old, bent, or weathered as useless—but God doesn’t’.

In those times when you feel like a pile of discarded wood and you’re not sure if you have anything that is useful, say this to yourself: “I am a child of God, and I can trust God for my entire life-young or old. I know God will meet me in the rubble and remind me that I am secure in God’s hands.”  

In closing, if today feels like a demolition site, if your heart is tired and your hope seems kind of like rusty bent nails, remember this: Even bent nails still have life in them. And in the hands of the Carpenter, nothing is wasted. Can I get a Hallelujah-indeed! AMEN.