For as long as I can remember, my grandmother made rugs on her loom in her basement. She took old rags, such as jeans, shirts, and other various materials, that are long past their use and turned them into beautiful rugs. I have 12 of them all throughout the house and they mean so much to me. It truly is remarkable how someone can take what others have discarded and turn it into something special.

This is what God has done with us. We were broken with sin and guilt, only to make us whole. think about the words of Isaiah, “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool” (1:18). God can take our sins, that have stained our souls crimson, and wash them white as snow. While others may cast us away, God is the one that can make us new. Read what Paul wrote: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

At one time we were lost and without hope in the world, but through God, we have been made new for good works. Just like the rags that are of no value, they are turned into rugs that keep our floors clean, rags made for a good work.

Too often, we devalue ourselves when we are priceless to God, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). We need to see the value in us that God has in us! He wants all to be saved for all are Hs creation!

We must also remember that others should not be cast away because we are practicing partiality. James warns against this: “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors” (James 2:8, 9).

Everyone has a place in the body of Christ, “If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased” (1 Corinthians 12:17, 18).

If the worthless rags can be turned to priceless rugs, my life of sin can be changed into a life of righteousness!

By: Justin Odom