Sharing the Savior’s Story

From Trash to Treasure III

It was during the Depression that a woman tried to make ends meet by cleaning houses. To her amazement, one of her customers kept throwing away stuff that seemed perfectly serviceable. One day a Chinese flower vase ended up in the trash and the cleaning lady asked to take it home. With permission, she did so and put it in the kitchen and used it to display her flowers.

That's the way it was for over 20 years. Then a friend talked her into showing the vase to an appraiser at the Buffalo Museum of Fine Arts. His decision: “If it's a fake, it’s a valuable fake; it’s a 200-year-old fake. If it’s real, it’s 2,000 years old and worth a fortune.” Then, as an afterthought, he asked, “But what's all this discoloration in the bottom?” He about fainted when the lady offered, “It’s from the cut flowers I put in it. It is a flower vase.” The common had become uncommon. The worthless had been proven valuable. Trash had become a treasure.

Excerpt from The Lutheran Hour broadcast of: March 9, 2003