Last Monday was the day for the removal of our rubbish to be recycled. So as usual, the night before, I pulled out the bin onto the road to await collection. Unfortunately, there was a very heavy fall of snow and it was not possible for 
most vehicles to climb up the 1 in 7 steep hill where we live. Because of the negative temperatures, the road surface was also made even more treacherous by the formation of ice. Our rubbish for recycling went uncollected.
We hear a great deal today about the importance of recycling, and are encouraged to recycle as much of our rubbish as is possible in order to stop polluting the land, rivers and seas. But for Christians, recycling has a far deeper meaning than just protecting and preserving our natural environment.
What does it mean to recycle? ~ to convert waste and unwanted rubbish into re-usable material
When God created us in His own image, we were without fault. We know this to be true, for nothing unholy, unrighteous or sinful can exist in God’s presence but we read that God delighted in Adam and Eve, having frequent fellowship with them in the garden where He placed them to live.
The Lord loves His creation so much that He gave us rules to live by … not to discourage us, to restrict our freedom or to shackle us in misery but to encourage us, to liberate us to experience the wonder of His creation and the pure and joyful relationship of walking with Him as our Heavenly Father.
But, in spite of being forewarned of the consequences, we wilfully refused to obey His Word and sinned. God tells us that “the wages of sin is death” which is eternal separation from Him. He also says that “all have sinned and fallen short of His glory”. Which means that, just like our discarded household rubbish, we are destined for the scrapheap, separated from that which is good, because we are marred and scarred by the ravages of our refusal to walk in the good ways of our loving and gracious Creator.
Man’s disobedience and rebellious sinfulness has corrupted and perverted the perfect creation of the Sovereign Lord God, but He is still our loving and gracious Creator. He saw the disastrous mess we were in and that we are unable to help ourselves, but He also saw the potential that was still within us however much our lives were stained and perverted by the chaos and corruption caused by our sin.
God loves each one of us so much that He did not automatically throw us into the dustbin, or discard us onto history’s scrapheap, or abandon us in an overflowing landfill, but put preparations in place for our redemption and recycling. In His great love and mercy God planned to clear away the rubbish and turn our wasted, decaying lives into something of value and of worth … as He originally intended us to be.
This He accomplished through the death and resurrection of His one and only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ … He is our Saviour and our Recycler
A Christian is someone who is being recycled
The words that the Lord God spoke to His people Israel, can be applied to all those who receive His Son Jesus the Messiah as their Lord and Saviour, as their Recycler:
“I will cleanse you from all your impurities … I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove from you your heart of stone (disobedience) and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you …”
“If any man is in Jesus, he is a new person altogether, the old has gone and the new has come”
Jean sometimes asks me, ‘Have you put the bin out?’ May I ask you, ‘Are you in the right place for the Lord to come and recycle your life?’ Or have you refused His offer? If you come to Him, nothing will stop Him receiving and recycling you, for all has been completed, through His death and resurrection.
Ron Brickman