Momma was a Garbage Picker and I Helped!

I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6 (CSB)
The San Antonio Express-News ran a story about the garbage pickers (pepenadores) in Matamoros, Mexico. The story featured a large number of families considered a subset of the city’s population. These families had created a livelihood of digging through the garbage heaps to find useful and recyclable items that others have thrown away. The story talked about the children and how they often helped their parents pick through garbage when they were not attending school. As one might suspect, these children were often ridiculed by their peers. The marvelous point about the story is that the families were able to live off the “pickings” from the garbage heap and the children were able to attend school because of the profits they made from other people’s discarded trash.

The resourcefulness of the families in this story reminded me of how Momma struggled to provide a life for us as a single parent. The fact that these families were considered a subset of the city’s population resonated with me because life with Momma always had a way of setting us apart. Momma never adhered to the traditional modes of society.

One of the memories I have about Momma is when she used to make me go with her to pick through the dumpster of a neighborhood Goodwill store. She made me go because she needed help loading discarded furniture and other items into her pickup truck. I hated going because it made me feel ashamed.

We would secretly pull behind the store under cover of darkness. As Momma slowly backed to the dumpster, the labored sound of the rattling truck engine echoed the trepidation of my heart. I crouched deep into the truck bed until she came to a full stop. I refused to get out until I was sure nobody could see what we were doing. Throughout the whole ordeal I would whisper my mantra of salvation, “Please don’t let anyone see us. Please don’t let us get caught. Please don’t let anyone see us. Please don’t let us get caught……”

It has taken me many years to sort through the details of my life and piece together the precious truth about Momma. She loved her children more than we could ever imagine and everything she did worked toward that end. She was a single mom working as a seamstress for minimum wage with three children to feed. Fantastically gifted and resourceful, she was able to make extra money by repairing and reupholstering broken and discarded furniture for resale and personal use. The beautiful sofas, loveseats, and chairs she created out of people’s trash and scavenged scraps of vinyl became treasures that helped to keep our family fed, clothed, and sheltered.

God’s truth is often difficult to discern because it gets buried within the garbage of worldly thinking and human perspective. We frequently become frustrated and ashamed because we cannot fit all the pieces together at one time. Don’t stop digging and searching! Latch onto the fragmented truths you find now, carry them home, and allow God to transform them over time. The treasured truth that will eventually unfold will be fantastic to behold!

God loves you more than you can ever imagine and everything he does works toward that end. Don't you dare give up!

Yvette Massey