From the Pastor's Study
From the Pastor’s Study
Good from Waste
May 10, 2023
At a recent meeting of the Blyth and area ministerial, one of the pastors led in devotions and included a reflective poem in her readings. The poem talked about the coming of spring, focusing on the scent of fresh mown grass and newly opened flowers. After the reading, one of the pastors commented, “The author hasn’t been to Huron County in the spring.” We all laughed. As the contents of the various manure piles and pits are spread over the fields, the odours overpower any scent of fresh grass and flowers we might otherwise have noticed. Without a doubt, a city person driving through Huron County on a sunny day in the spring will be offended by the odours from the offal of chickens, hogs, beef and goats. And some of the smells are quite offensive even to those who have lived all their lives here.
As we laughed together about the aromas of Huron County, a few comments were made about the positive side of the smells we endure every spring. As many have noted, while manure stinks, it is not carcinogenic (does not cause cancer). Unlike many man-made chemicals whose emissions can be deadly even before we smell them, the smell of manure, while offensive, is not harmful to us. We do not want to be in close contact with manure, but even then, getting it on our hands rarely causes us to become ill, unless, of course, we don’t wash our hands before we eat.
But there is a positive side to manure. It is quite amazing, when you think about it, that God created this world in such a way that the waste of living creatures provides nutrients for the plants. A field covered in manure needs a lot less fertilizer than one without. Added to this, is the benefit of water retention in soil because of the organic matter that becomes present when manure is spread. A field that has very little organic matter cannot absorb water in the came capacity as one that has a lot.
I am sure that most of this is common knowledge to most who are reading this, but we should stop to marvel at the wonder of creation, and, consequently at the thoughtfulness of our Creator. Imagine for a moment if the waste of living creatures had no use. Think of how polluted our world would have become already as piles of waste were piled on the corners of farms and dumped into the oceans. (Perhaps we don’t have to work our imaginations too hard because we see a good example of that very thing as we dispose of the things we have made, things that have no further use to either plants or animals. This goes to show that while we share creative capabilities with God, we do not share the same depth of wisdom.) God has designed the world so that the waste we produce is beneficial for other parts of creation. Amazingly, plants take the waste of living creatures and reconfigure it so that we can enjoy corn on the cob and potatoes and apple pie. The design of this creation is truly amazing.
I do not doubt that before the fall into sin, the creation worked in much the same way as it does now. The offal of those creatures created on the 5th and 6th days (birds, fish, animals and humans) would have been used by the plants, and the good world would have grown all the more beautiful. This is how God designed the world.
But God did not design the world to have sin in it. Sin, which is a product of men and women all over the world, creates waste that is more akin to that which we find in our garbage dumps than in our manure piles. The chemicals and plastics and heavy metals in our dumps accumulate and will continue to grow in quantity. We can say the same thing about the effects of sin.
While we are not wise enough or capable enough or willing enough to deal with the waste we produce from our sin, God is. In fact, he can even turn bad situations into something good. A few years ago I met a man, a Christian, who had made a big mistake and had an affair with a woman in his church. He quickly came to his senses, and he confessed his sin, asking forgiveness of God, the church and his family. Yet the shame and guilt of his sin remained with him, and relationships with family and church changed, becoming more strained. He had a garbage dump in his life, and he didn’t know what to do with it. Several years later, however, another man in his church did much the same thing. The first man discovered that God had turned some of that garbage into something useful, and he was able to help the second man seek reconciliation through repentance and forgiveness both from God and community. The first man discovered the power of God to take waste and use it for good.
It’s not that we should deliberately produce waste through sin, but we can be confident that God can and will take what waste we produce and use it for fertilizer in other people’s lives. God built into creation the ability for it to use that which is offensive for good. It is natural that manure is good for fertilizer for plants. This is not miraculous. What is miraculous, however, is God’s ability to take that waste that has no use and turn it to our good, the waste produced by our sin. That is miraculous, and we can be thankful that because God acts, the waste of sin does not pile up as high as it could, and it does not contaminate the world as much as it would if God did not intervene regularly in our lives.
Pastor Gary
