Dear Parishioners and Friends,
When I was a little child, back in the days of rotary dial telephones and tinfoil on the TV’s “rabbit ears,” one of my most prized possessions was my Super Friends record player. I had a number of albums, but my favorite was a set of 45’s with songs from Sesame Street. The hits included “Rubber Duckie,” “C is for Cookie,” and best of all “I Love Trash.”
How I loved singing along with Oscar, “...anything dirty or dingy or dusty, anything ragged or rotten or rusty; O I love trash!” Perhaps it was this ditty that planted within me the seed of a lifelong love of old stuff. I bet I was the only kid in eighth grade English class to give a report on my interesting flea market finds.
It’s not usually the “museum quality” antiques that catch my eye. More likely than not, it is something that has seen better days; slightly broken, a bit bedraggled, missing a part here or there. These things first make me imagine the many hands through which they passed and the history they’ve survived. Most recently it was a pre-Civil War cast iron parlor stove that I discovered in a barn in Lake Placid. It was a bit rusty, and the fire box was completely burned out, but my was it handsome and historic! It is soon to be sent to a stove restoration expert in the Berkshires and will take up residence with us in the rectory in time for next winter.
This is a true saying and worthy of all men to be received: One man’s trash is truly another’s treasure.
I like to think that God looks at us in much the same way. We all come before him with battle scars, with flaws, and with brokenness. Perhaps in the eyes of the world we seem to be of very little worth or even unlovable. But God doesn’t see what the world sees. He sees something made in his own image; something so valuable as to be worth the price of his only Son’s life.
It is my hope and prayer that we can begin to see each other less with the eyes of the world—the eyes which separate and judge based on perceived differences—and more with eyes like God’s—the eyes that in unconditional love see only his beloved child.
Blessings,
Father Rick
917.658.6314
