I’m cleaning the kitchen as my son plays beneath my feet. I love giving Jase jobs helping to keep him busy as I get a few things done. As I take the last sheet of paper towels off the roll I hand Jase the empty paper towel roll and say, “Can you throw this away for mommy? It’s trash.” Jase takes it from my hand and says “Thank you” as he always so sweetly does when I ask for his help. Instead of throwing it away though it became this special treasure to him. He was putting it up to his eyes and looking through it like a telescope. Then he was talking through it laughing at his distorted and echoing voice. It was the sweetest thing to watch. This piece of cardboard with leftover paper towel scraps that no longer serves a purpose was the most exciting new toy in my toddlers hands.

Here is where I felt that whisper….

“What so many people believe to be trash, it’s my treasure.” 


This empty paper towel roll was just cardboard in my eyes. It served it’s purpose and held my paper towels neatly in a roll until I had used them all. I was done with it and it was trash. But my son saw it  in a different light, he saw a treasure just waiting to be used.

I believe there are some people who think their use in this world is done. They’re beaten up, they’re bruised, they’re buried under mistakes and mess ups. They’re nothing more then a piece of trash that no one has use for anymore. They are allowing themselves to be defined by the mess in their life and see themselves as nothing more than a piece of trash.

Maybe that person is you.

Maybe you feel defeated and that all hope is lost. Maybe you feel like who you are, and who you have been, is far from the person anyone would want. Your life is shattered into pieces and there is no way it can be put back together.

But there’s that whisper again.  “What so many people believe to be trash, it’s my treasure.”  You may feel like trash that no longer has a use, but when you’re in the hand of God you’re this treasure waiting to be used. He sees what no one else sees, he sees what you can be. He doesn’t look at what you were before, He doesn’t look at your past, all He sees is you right now. God sees who you can become.

So it doesn’t matter how worthless you think you are, in the hands of a Mighty God you are the most precious piece of treasure.