Cheese-Smothered Aquafina Bottles

While running past the college this morning, I noticed (on the neatly trimmed grass) an empty Aquafina bottle, smothered in cheese sauce, next to a beer can. And it was lovely.

…

So, I stopped and gazed at it in wonder.

…

Not really. Though I appreciated the randomness, it was pretty gross.

So, today, I’m running, and I’m thinking about how not even something as ugly as a cheese-smothered water bottle can distract me from the beauty of the daffodils that are springing up EVERYWHERE, or the bright feathers of the ducks waddling around Heartwell Park, or even the way the sun feels on my skin after enduring the winter.

And I’m reminded of how God lets ugly co-exist with beauty. And then I wonder why…

After God destroyed creation in the flood, He made a promise to the earth. “Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.”

And I remember that ugly co-exists with beauty…because God is merciful.

He doesn’t just let them co-exist in creation, but also in people. It’s one of those annoying things we never seem to grasp. “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…”

But that has incredible implications, “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

We instinctively look for the beautiful in creation. People spend evenings watching sunsets…not dumpsters. I did NOT stop to gaze at the cheese-smothered water bottle.

But we struggle to do the same with people. We kind of like to stop and gape at the cheese-smothered water bottles in the lives of others. Isn’t that strange?

...and ugly? And it fuels our own insecurities, because we don’t want others to see our own trash.

Jesus showed us a better way. That's what Paul is saying in Romans 7. Where sin increases, we have opportunities to see how cool grace is. God chose not to destroy humanity, but showed mercy and sent Jesus instead.

God is merciful.


(This rainbow was so ridiculous, I made my roommate late to Bible Study on Tuesday.)