Ministersmusingssep09

September 2009 Musing

THE PHANTOM PEELER

There is a phantom orange peeler in my neighbourhood, phantom because he is never seen but the piles of orange peel he leaves on the pavement are. The peel appears overnight and apparently the offender stands under the lamp post and consumes two or three oranges at a time. On occasion even the net wrapper is also discarded. This has been happening for about two years and no one has any idea who the phantom orange eater is. Sometimes an irate resident will stick a note on the lamp post requesting that they take their peel with them, all to no avail. The problem is that if left other things like Coke tins, bottles and pizza boxes are added making an unsightly mess for someone else to clear up.

We are a dirty, untidy nation. Every corner and piece of waste ground in our towns is littered with unsightly rubbish. Tins, bottles, wrappers, chewing gum, even items of discarded furniture are just dumped anywhere. Our lovely countryside is polluted by ‘fly tipping’. It is not unusual to see not only the dreaded black bags but mattresses, refrigerators and builders rubble in gateways and on waste ground. I have even seen a three piece suite deposited by the roadside. The trouble with rubbish is that it breeds faster than rabbits. One black bag becomes two, three and so on.

How like us this is. There is much unsightly rubbish in our lives and it grows. One dishonest action becomes two, an unkind thought becomes an unkind act, envy magnifies into sheer greed, ‘two timing’ a friend or partner becomes ‘three, four, five timing’ and so on. The old fashioned word for human ‘rubbish’ is sin. The wonderful thing is that just as street rubbish can be disposed of and polluted places cleaned, so can we. God gave His Son to die on the cross for our sin. By accepting Christ into our lives we are made clean and given new strength to withstand temptation. Our God is a God of forgiveness and new beginnings. Praise the Lord! He even knows who the phantom orange peeler is!