Beautiful Things

I want to let you in on a little secret.  On Saturday morning, a member of our altar guild goes into the neighborhood looking for weeds.  She's on a search for the ones that are growing in abandoned lots, and freneticaly blooming along privacy fences by dumpsters.  The ones that everyone disregards because they "don't belong".  They aren't in a mown yard, they shouldn't grow in the pavement cracks. But that doesn't mean they aren't beautiful and worthy before God.  
Carol brings them into the sanctuary. She places them on either side of the altar and, dare we say, she restores them to their proper privilege - God's own creation whole and redeemed.  It's not to say that they were ever not God's creation. It's not to say that they weren't beautiful before. But they needed someone to see them. To name their worthiness for the house of God.  
Isn't it just the same way with us?  We are beautiful. We are precious treasures to God. Yet so often we belittle ourselves, even making choices that leave us next to the dumpters of life.  All of us need someone to pick us up and help us get back to our rightful place.  That, beloved, is the work of the church.  
                                                                                                     -- Pastor Rebecca