Jesus and Simon

I found this piece of cardboard in my grandmother's attic. She's cleaning out her art studio, and she wanted me to throw it away for her. After all, it's just a large, stained piece of cardboard that sat unused for years.

Simon is only mentioned briefly in Scripture. We don't read anything else about him except that he carried the cross for Jesus and that his children were named Alexander and Rufus. As a matter of fact, if Simon never carried the cross, we never would have heard of him at all. He's an expendable character in the crucifixion story. The soldiers could have forced anyone to carry the cross.

This encounter with Jesus changes Simon's life story forever. Thousands of years later, we are still talking about him. We draw pictures of him. We try to figure out how he felt and what he was thinking. God takes a "nobody" and brings him into the spotlight.

In the same way, God takes our lives, as insignificant and expendable as they are, and he makes something beautiful out of them. He takes our trash and makes art.