As the snow melts, the drainage ditches along the roads are filling and flowing. Some have been flowing faster than others. The temperatures reached the upper fifties last week, so I had expected to see the water flowing in the ditch at the end of my driveway. Instead, I noticed water pooling on one side of the driveway, and dry ground on the other. The culvert under the driveway was plugged. Clearing the obstruction was important; a heavy rainfall or two could wash out the end of the driveway. It happened before and I didn’t want it to happen again. The melting snow revealed what I had expected to see in the ditch - leaves, leaves and more leaves, an occasional twig or branch, and clumps of soggy weeds and grass.
With a blue sky above and a rake in hand, I started raking out the leaves and other natural debris. The water was still not flowing. Using a hoe, I pulled leaves and debris from inside the pipe, and water began trickling through. Reaching into the pipe even further, I began to pull out material I hadn’t expected at all. It was sand, dirt, rocks, and chunks of concrete. The snowplows had cleared more than snow from the road this past winter, and the “soft” shoulder of the road was in the ditch and drainage pipe. Nothing a shovel couldn’t fix. It’s not like the guys plowing intended for that to happen. It’s all part of living along a quasi-rural road. I raked and hoed some more, and the water finally began flowing under the driveway.
What I saw next really surprised me – a sleeping bear floated out from the pipe. It had been hibernating in there during the winter. Just kidding. No animals of any sort emerged, but a large chunk of styrofoam did float out, followed by an empty plastic soda bottle with the cap still on it, a soda can, a beer can, and a clear vinyl sleeve for a compact disc brought up the rear of the roadside trash flotilla. The rapidly melting snow revealed even more bottles, cans, cigarette butts, and even an empty anti-freeze container. Yuck! As I collected the litter, I felt a bit violated. I didn’t like that people had carelessly discarded their trash into my yard, or worse yet, that they might have tossed it there intending to pollute my space.
It might be true that at times one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, but it is never acceptable that someone else’s property (public or private) is another man’s trashcan. There is a name for trash found along the roads - it’s called litter. People who deposit litter along the highways and byways are not modern-day Johnny Appleseeds; they are Litterbugs! We have all come across a litterbug at one time or another, and if we are honest we may have seen one in the mirror on occasion.
Litter and litterbugs have been around a long time. Jesus introduced his disciples to arguably the most infamous litterbug of all time when he told the story of the wheat and weeds (Matthew 13:24-30). In the story, a farmer planted good wheat seeds in his field. The same evening as everyone slept, the farmer’s enemy - the ultimate litterbug – threw weed seeds among the wheat. Jesus later explained the meaning of the parable to his disciples (Matthew 13:36-43). He taught them that the farmer in the story was Himself, the field was the world, the good seed represented the people of His Kingdom, and the enemy was the Devil. The weeds represented everything that causes sin and all who do evil. The weeds can be likened to spiritual litter.
If roadside trash is troubling, then the spiritual parallel is even more troubling. That the Devil “litters” and vandalizes what belongs to God should come as no surprise; it’s what the father of lies does. But what about when God’s own children carelessly throw “trash” onto God’s property? When His sons and daughters lie to each other, they are tossing “litter” onto God’s property. When they pass gossip along, it’s like throwing garbage into the soul of one who is important to God. When they re-tell a dirty joke, they are throwing cigarette butts on the ground where God’s children live and play. Yuck! That’s a disturbing image, and if I want to be honest, there are probably too many times that the word “they” could be replaced with the word “I”. When I lie, when I gossip, when I tell a dirty joke, when I do those things, I am unwittingly doing what God’s enemy, the devil, does. I become a spiritual litterbug. Just the thought of that makes me feel sick. I need to be seriously mindful of what I do with my trash. You do too.
Grace to you.
Dave Paukner
