The Preservation of Waste Things
’ The napkin that was about His head, wrapped together in a place by itself.” — John xx. 7.
WHY SO careful of so poor a thing? A napkin which had covered the face of the dead Christ is wrapped together by angel hands, and laid in a corner apart! It had never been meant for any use but as a covering of the dead face of Jesus. Even that use had been rendered impracticable; Jesus had risen, and His face had become radiant with life. There was no further need of the napkin. It had been intended only for the grave; and now even for the grave it was useless. Why did the angel not simply pass it by? Why take it up tenderly, fold it together carefully, lay it by separately? We can understand the gathering of the fragments that remained from the desert feast, for these could make another feast. But the napkin had reached its final sphere, and there was no further place for it; why should celestial hands he so sedulous for its preservation? Because all our discarded past lives in the thought of God. The things we have surmounted and thrown away are gathered up by heaven. It takes our chafif into its garner. The dead past which I dismiss with scorn is treasured by the hand of the Almighty. It is meant to meet us again in the Resurrection Light — to be seen in retrospect from the top of the hill. Many a dead garment is glorified by memory; many a flower blooms in the heart when it has withered in the garden. This napkin had only been associated with sorrow; it was to be associated with joy. It had been the symbol of tears; it was to be the badge of victory. It had been the mark of defeat, of failure, of death; it was to be the sign of triumph, of success, of life for evermore. God says of the vanished years, “I will not let them go until you have blessed them.”
Lord, teach me the solemnity of the treasured napkin! Teach me the solemnity of the truth that Thou hast a place for the things T have discarded! How much that I have cast away as graveclothes has been treasured by Thee! How many things that I have thrown as rubbish to the void have been folded up and laid aside by Thee! Often it seems to me that the moments I called waste have been the most fruitful moments. I have had hours in the desert which appeared to me useless — hours when I seemed to be standing still, driven into a corner, shunted from the way. And, lo, in the light of future years I have looked back, and the desert was a garden! It had been the most crowded hour of my life, the most epoch-making hour, the hour when angels ministered unto me. Help me to look reverently on my discarded garments! Even when I have outgrown them, let me reverence them! Even when they seem never to have fitted me, let me reverence them! Even when they appear to have cramped me, limited me, confined me, let me reverence them! Let me remember that in the light of the resurrection morning I shall see them — see them as the garments of the universe! Let me remember that Thou hast not outgrown them, tli()U«;ii have — that they arc parts of Thy timc-vesture, and must be vindicated hv the perfect day! All my dead things shall live again in Thee.