My new favorite store is called The Grocery Depot. It is located in Albany , OR , in a humble shopping center, close to such shopping establishments as Bi Mart, Joann’s Fabrics, Rainbow West Bookstore, and a plethora of restaurants. There is even a DMV in that plaza.
The Grocery Depot is operated by a Mennonite family. The women wear their picturesque caps and simple clothing.
This store’s “specialty,” you might say, is damaged goods. They buy large amounts of salvage merchandise, and offer it up for a fraction of the retail cost. If you don’t mind purchasing a banged up box of Hamburger Helper, then this is the place for you.
Mind you, however, that not all the goods are banged up. Some of the more pristine packages are either a bit past their pull date, and some still are simply overstock, perfectly good merchandise, that the original store wanted out of the way, to make room for something new.
American consumers are conditioned to look for the perfect product. For example, if I’m in Safeway or Freddy’s, and I look at boxes of cereal, I am automatically going to pick the one with the best packaging. If there is a dent in the top, I will simply reach behind that box and pull out one that looks better. The same is true with canned goods: if they are dented, or simply if the label is a bit torn, I skip over that item for a more favorable-appearing item.
This is all well and good in the consumer marketplace, but the tragic thing is that we do the same thing with people. Looks are supremely important. If there is scarring, “imperfect packaging,” or if someone just seems “past their pull date,” then their value is diminished.
If you don’t believe me, watch a Miss USA pageant. 50 beautiful women parade in front of a camera, to be broadcast into millions of people’s homes. They have fabulous hair, faces of angels, and “perfect bodies.”
However, if you have ever watched a Miss USA pageant with a group of women, you will most likely have immediately heard someone in the group point out the “faults” of the contestants. Miss Alaska ’s nose is too big, Miss Alabama is flat-chested, Mrs. Oklahoma has a too much "junk in her trunk." It can go on and on.
We as Americans are taught, often from a young age, to devalue the imperfect. It is evident in the facades that people feel they have to wear in front of others.
However, God’s value system has always flown in the face of ours. He has always looked at the miserable, poor, needy human population and has seen something that he valued so much, that he sent his own Son to die to save these wretched people. He walked into the store of humanity, not expecting a discount for the “damaged goods” he saw. He paid a premium price for what he was looking for. Why? Only God knows…
However, we are called to be imitators of Christ. It takes a divine touch of God’s grace in our own lives, in order to be able to understand how to do this. He has valued us so high, that we are in turn to look at each other and recognize that they also have great worth.
This sounds much simpler than it actually is, especially if the person you are looking at is the source of your own, or your loved one’s damage. Grace and forgiveness from us to others must come as an extension of the grace and forgiveness that we ourselves have received, because that person we are looking at has also been bought with a great price, by the God of the universe.
Rhea J. Chladek
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
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