I know that we’ve come through Thanksgiving and are now clearly looking forward to Christmas, and it is right that we do so, but in reality we should never stop giving thanks. As I was working on a sermon a short while ago I came across an incredibly edifying passage in a commentary, which challenged me to be more thankful for garbage as well as other “mundane” and “ordinary” things in life. Dale Ralph Davies, in his commentary on Judges says that we should think theologically about garbage, and I think he is right. He writes,

“I regard taking out the garbage as part of the daily tedium of life, and it is something I leave, whenever possible, for the other household members to do.  Of course, I am wrong.  Taking out the garbage should be viewed as a daily sacrament, for garbage in and of itself is a sign of provision.  Potato peelings, apple cores, and squash seeds are silent witnesses that our Father is still feeding us.  So garbage is not a tedious detail, but a divine blessing.  We can miss that because it is so routine.  I guess our problem is that we don’t think theologically about garbage” (Dale Ralph Davies, Judges: Such a Great Salvation, p. 160-161).

May the Lord be pleased to open our eyes so that we might see his grace to us in the mundane, to see his generosity to us in garbage, and so spur us on to deeper gratitude.