God Don’t Make No Junk!

There’s a saying in the South, “God don’t make no junk. God don’t make no junk.”

What I would like to talk about today is how good you are. You know the Creation Story that on the sixth day when God created man and woman, he looked at them and He said, “Oops.” That’s not what He said, right? He looked at them, and He said, “They are very good.” So, God created you, and you are very good. “God don’t make no junk.”

We hear in the first reading from the book of Wisdom, Before the Lord, the whole universe is a grain from a balance or a drop of morning dew. Then it says, but, you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and this line really got to me, and you overlook people’s sins that they may repent.

I think that sometimes we have this image of God, that He is just waiting for us to do something wrong and He will punish us for it. I know a lot of people say that that’s the God they grew up with and some people say that that is the God from the Old Testament. This is the Old Testament reading and it is talking about the mercy of God.

He has mercy on all, because you can do all things, and you overlook people’s sins so that they may repent. 

He overlooks our sins so that they may repent. His way of causing us to turn towards Him and to love Him is through love Himself. It’s not through punishment. That has its place and certainly, if we’re way off the course God may have to punish us to get us back on course, but in general, He’s patient with us. He’s willing even to overlook your sins so that you may repent.

He goes on to say, for you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made. 

I think sometimes also we have a lot of self-loathing. We loathe ourselves, we loathe a weakness of ours or a sin that we’re stuck on. We just loathe that we can’t stand it, but God loathes nothing that He has made. He doesn’t loathe you; He loves you.

It goes on to say for what you hated, you would not have fashioned. And how could a thing remain unless you willed it.  

He created you from the very moment of conception; you were not a mistake. You were not junk. No matter what situation you grew up in, even if you felt that from your own family or from your own childhood, you are not junk because God don’t make no junk. You are beautiful. He loves you.

How could a thing remain unless you willed it?  If He didn’t love you, you wouldn’t be sitting here right now. We remain only because He loves us.

Then He says, you spare all things because they are yours. We belong to Him. You’re God, you’re His handiwork. He’s never going to cast you aside. He’s never going to cast you out.

Then this beautiful line: O Lord and lover of souls. Again, from the moment of creation when your soul was created, He fell in love with you. God loves your soul. No matter what happens in our lives; no matter what we do; no matter what we experience, He never stops loving us because God don’t make no junk.

He does go on to say you rebuke offenders little by little. So, He does correct us, but He’s patient. Sometimes it’s little by little.

He warns them and reminds them of the sins they are committing, but He does not abandon us, those who believe in Him.

I want you to think about your own life. Sometimes we get frustrated with something that we’re struggling with. We get discouraged by a chronic sin in our lives, addiction, or just the way we are. Sometimes we can’t even stand ourselves, but God loves you and doesn’t give up on us. The wonderful thing is that He’s patient but will get you there. You’re going to overcome that sin in, with, and through Him, but it might take a while. It might even take a whole lifetime. God doesn’t give up on you, so don’t give up on Him, and don’t give up on yourself. Realize that He’s constantly working and shaping and recreating you.

If there’s any part of us that we look at with shame, or that we think is garbage, or that we are garbage, just remember that He’s in love with your soul. God is wild about you. He can’t get enough of you. No matter how much we look at ourselves and dislike ourselves, He looks at us with love.

As we enter this Eucharist and we give ourselves to Him, let us remember that. That we come as we are, and every time we receive the Eucharist, He’s transforming us; He’s redeeming us; He’s not giving up on us because God does not make junk.

Think about your life too, from the time you grew up, anytime that you felt like you were unworthy, anytime that you felt worthless, anytime that you felt rejected, or anytime you felt unloved. I want you to spend some time after the homily for a moment and go back to that memory when you felt like garbage, unloved, and like junk, and remember how much God loves you. How much He loved you in that moment.

Remember. God loves you, and God don’t make no junk.