stuff on the side of the road

Last weekend my wife and I traveled to Smith Mountain Lake to visit some friends. On the way home, while sitting in a traffic jam on I-81, I noticed a trash bin on the shoulder of the road. It looked like a perfectly good trash bin, a lot like the one I set out every Monday night in front of my house. I couldn’t help but wonder, “How did that get there?”

I can imagine several scenarios where a trash bin might wind up on the side of I-81. Perhaps someone was hauling some stuff to the dump, and after starting home, they discovered (too late) that an empty trash bin will not stay in the back of the pickup. Maybe a mighty wind picked it up from someone’s front yard and tossed it across the road. Or maybe a prankster felt it would be hilarious to put it there so that people like me would wonder, “How did that get there?” (Sounds like something a Radford University student would do.)

I’m sure we have all seen weird stuff on the side of the road. Things like toasters, luggage, hats, and furniture. One of my favorite memes is the one showing a dead racoon on the side of the road with a “get well soon” balloon tied to his leg. (Also something a Radford student might do during the fall semester.)

An abandoned kitten, a lost dog, a cell phone, and a crutch. I see these things and wonder how they got there. What’s the story behind their getting tossed to the curb? Was the kitten part of a litter that the owner could not care for? Did the dog slip out of the house unobserved? Was the phone tossed out the window in anger when some guy called about an extended car warranty? Was an injured leg miraculously healed while heading down the interstate?

We all know what it’s like to be tossed aside, don’t we? To be unwanted, unneeded, and lost. The good news is Jesus’ specialty is finding us when we get lost. He might not be interested in a trash bin, but he is certainly interested in you.