The Towpath Diaries - From Junk to Beauty

I love to ride the Towpath Trail. For those who don't know the Towpath, it runs 85 miles north to south through the Erie Canalway. I can pick it up through Brecksville Metroparks reservation. I love to ride either north and connect to Cleveland Metroparks or south to Akron. It is a beautiful ride regardless and so peaceful.

I am awed by a sense of God's beauty as I go through this place. Many times, my heart is brought back to how God works in the life of his children through the wonder of nature, His handiwork. So consequently, I am thinking through yet another series to match up what we see every day.

In the early days of the Towpath, there was a automobile salvage yard that existed around mile marker 28 of the Towpath.  In the early 1980's that area was reclaimed, cleaner up and now is a thriving bird sanctuary and beaver marsh. I can't find pictures of the original auto salvage yard, but I can imagine it looked like this.

And God turns it into this.

As I was riding today, I noticed a Great Blue Heron about 5 feet from the bridge that goes over the marsh.

 I was reminded by how God takes junk and turns it into beauty. God does not create junk. But sin taints us and mars the landscape of our soul. Junk is deposited and what we have left is a salvage yard. There may be good pieces in there, but you have to find them.

But a life redeemed by Christ "reclaims" that junk and creates a new soul (2 Cor 5:17). The "old has passed and the new has come". If you look at the marsh, it is hard to imagine that there was a junkyard there. But over time, God through nature redeemed the marsh. He loves to reclaim and renew lost souls that have become a junkyard.

The first step is to let him come into your life and start the reclamation project. This act of faith was needed on the part of those who purged the junk. God simply requires you do nothing more than ask Him of obedience and faith to clean you up. God is in the business of renewing junkyards.