Trash Day

Thursday is "trash day" around here, which means that on Wednesday night, all the trash is collected around the house, deposited into the outside container, and rolled to the end of the driveway. As I made my early morning walk, I realized that my neighbors have basically the same routine. The trash truck also has a routine, and this particular morning, it and I played tag a number of times, eventually with my out running it -- only because I opted out of a cul-de-sac tour.

It's quite funny what one can tell about his or her neighbor from a walk around the block on trash day. For one, over flowing containers may reveal what the home owners had for dinner the night before. Because several cans boasted a number of empty pizza boxes and soda and/or beer cans, I mentally recapped the evening prior and wondered if I missed some special ballgame on TV the night before. I noticed that one yard had been fertilized due to the bags hanging over the edge of another trash bin. One family had been doing some spring cleaning because they had not one, but TWO, overflowing "Advanced Disposals" at their corner. Another decided not to try and make their overly used mops fit, so they were laying flat on the ground waiting their personal pick up. And some neighbors had just purely forgotten it was trash day.

But the loudest thing and what always catches my attention on trash day is ... the smell. On any other day of the week, especially in the spring and summer, the air is so fragrant. If it's nothing but freshly mowed grass, the smell is sweet. Lately, much lantana and a number of blooming rose bushes have graced the curbs. But not this morning. Pure, unadulterated eau-de-trash.

Except for one house. The occupant of this home was up early doing laundry which, by the time I was passing, was already in the drying stage. And so what wafted from this place was not the stench of garbage that had been brought out to the street but the sweet smell of detergent and fabric softener from the cleaning taking place within. And I couldn't help but pour forth my heart: " O God, I want to be like that! I want the sweet smelling fragrance of Your cleansing Word each morning to overpower and subdue the stench of sin in my life!" After all, are we not to God the aroma of Christ among those being saved as well as to those who are perishing?

Just an ordinary moment...