I grew up composting, but it wasn’t in the eco-friendly, environmentally conscious sort of way. It was practical, a means of waste disposal. And it worked! A simple compost pile out behind the wood shed was a place where raccoons foraged for scraps and good soil was made.

As an adult, I started composting when I started gardening in a more intense manner. I got into the proper mixture of brown and green materials, I bought a compost thermometer and experimented with worms in the compost heap (have you ever ordered worms in the mail?!).

Now, in this baby phase, composting is once again purely practical. I have no extra time to devote to soil production—-I barely have time to garden as it is! We’re starting soild foods, and this baby of ours loves to try things, but also loves to drop perfectly good food on the floor to hear it splat. Kiwi, avocado, corn on the cobb, berries, sweet potatoes…you name it, it’s gone on the ground with only a few bites taken out of it. These beginning stages of eating are all about trying and testing, so there’s nothing wrong with the process, but the waste can be a little disheartening.

And then I remember it’ll all get composted. That perfect kiwi, the avocado I watched ripen to peak avocado-ness for Danny to sample, the sweet potato I roasted in the oven and mashed, all of it can go into the compost heap.

It won’t get turned, the ration of brown to green material will definitely be a little skewed, but you know what? Despite my negligence, it’ll still decompose. It’ll still be out there in the backyard gradually becoming something nourishing.

So it goes with all our waste I think. The situations we don’t know how to handle, the things left undone because there isn’t time in this season of life, maybe the things we’ve let go during a pruning because they no longer serve Love. All in the heap. They break down, and as they do, they change from waste and leftovers to something life-giving. This is the resurrection story running all the way through. The place, people, and stories that society cast aside becoming the vehicles for blessing for all people. The eternity-altering story being woven into the ordinary leftover materials of life.

If there are things you’ve set aside, pruned, or lost, perhaps think about putting them into that spiritual compost heap. Let the Spirit do the decomposition work, wait, and eventually, life will come from it all. That’s the work of Love. May we have eyes to see it.