One Man's Trash is Another Man's TreasureBy Marilyn Duguid
The boxes sat on the boulevard for a couple of days in front of a vacant house on our street awaiting garbage pick-up. The house had been sold and it seemed obvious that the content of the boxes fell in the category of good riddance to bad rubbish. I’m sure you’ve heard that ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure’ and that would soon ring true in the case of these orphaned boxes.
Certain members of my family are reputed garbage pickers and have been known to save garbage men time on their routes by getting there first, so to speak. Such was the case on a warm night last summer. My husband, daughter, and son-in-law hauled two good-sized boxes back to the house and I, who typically takes the I-don’t-know-you attitude, was astounded as they commenced to take stock of their find. Why anyone would discard such possessions was inexplicable. The boxes held memorabilia and keepsakes of at least three generations of a family.
The numerous photos had no special meaning for us, but there were some other items of great significance. Two invitations to Buckingham Palace dated in the 1930’s, a full menu from Titanic’s sister ship, the Olympia, four pairs of infants’ leather shoes worn around the turn of the century, brochures and programmes from the 1936 Olympics, and diaries kept from the trenches of World War One were but a few of the treasures. And then, it was as if the boxes had preserved the best until last. The most extraordinary surprise lined the bottom of the last box. There lay an original edition of The Globe printed in Toronto on Monday, July 1, 1867, Canada’s Confederation Day. We gingerly opened the yellow fragile pages and indulged ourselves in the report that hailed the birth of a new nation, Canada. Fine print embodied the entire history of our country beginning with Jacques Cartier in 1534. There was no doubt; my family has stumbled upon the mother of all garbage picking treasures.
During an East Coast vacation that same summer, my husband and I travelled to Charlottetown with the prized newspaper. We visited Founder’s Hall, the confederation museum, and invited those in charge to examine our prize; they were thrilled as were their summer workers. We contemplated donating it to the museum. But in the end, selfishly decided that it should remain within our family and be framed.
How is it that one man can see such treasure in something another man will throw away? Does this not sound reminiscent of what John said about Jesus: ‘He came unto His own and His own received Him not’ (John 1:11)? How anyone could discard such a treasure as Jesus and His Gospel is inexplicable. Yet, as a nation, the Jewish people did set their treasure out to the curb, so to speak, and in the sovereignty of God the Gentiles found it. And so what shall we, who came upon this treasure, now do with it? Should we selfishly keep it as our family has done with our Confederation newspaper? No, and again I say no. Paul clearly scolds us from entertaining such a thought in the book of Romans. The refusal of the Jewish people to acknowledge their treasured Messiah and His good news, in turn brought great riches to us Gentiles. God forbid that we should be so selfish as to keep these riches to ourselves; we must open the box for our Jewish friends to examine and thrill to the truth of them.
©2005 - Marilyn Duguid
