By Julie B. Cosgrove

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6a).

An eighty year-old friend told me of a cruel joke her older siblings would play on her when she was a little girl.They told her they were going to give her to the “rag man.”

She explained a man came through the streets with a horse-drawn carriage collecting old rags and other broken items people no longer wanted. Her brothers and sisters were in essence telling her she was junk. Unwanted.

Originally homemade rag dolls were sewn from leftover clothes, odd buttons, and whatever stuffing was around the house. But the cool thing? Each was unique. Each took time and imagination to create. Each came from junk but transformed into a gift of beauty by the labor of love.

God can take whatever has become ragged and junky in our lives due to sin and make it into something good and of worth. We will never be thrown into the garbage pile once we agree to become the King of Heaven’s invaluable child.

I’m another rags-to-riches story in the making. How about you?

Julie Cosgrove

Julie Cosgrove is an editor and writer for Cru Canada’s internet ministry, Power to Change. Her income, like any missionary’s, is dependent upon prayer and financial partners. She is also a professional speaker and a multiple award-winning author of ten novels with four more under contract.