“For the Son of Man [Jesus Christ] came to seek and to save the lost.”
Luke 19:10 (NIV)
Mudlarking for the Lost
If ever you have wandered by the Thames river either as a visitor to or resident of London, you may witness the unusual sight of individuals intently scavenging and searching along the shore of the exposed muddy river bed. Their goal is finding the various artifacts and hidden treasures, sometimes centuries old that the river reluctantly yields as it retreats on the ebbing tide.
This ritual and niche hobby is known as Mudlarking and is possible along the shore of the Thames River through London because the Thames unlike some other major rivers flowing through cities is tidal and artifacts, fragments, and secrets of the past alike can be rescued.
Mudlarking is definitely something I would like to try sometime but it also serves as a simple and beautiful picture reflecting Jesus’ labour of sacrificial love in the lives of people across the world.
We may lie broken, cracked, and sometimes shattered into many pieces, buried in the layers and mire of, shame, wrongful behaviour and wounded hearts or feeling washed up by the realities of life. In the guise of a Mudlarker Jesus seeks us out to ensure that we do not remain there.
Willfully he, the Son of God, takes our place on a cross he had to carry and there receives humbly onto himself every wrongful act, every broken promise, every painful episode of loss, sickness, shame, and rejection that coated and buried us. In his resurrection, He takes us by the hand and pull us in redeeming love from the muddy mire we once were buried in. Where once some of us may have felt discarded by others or society, we are found and called precious in his sight and His treasured possession. What a saviour he truly is; the face of God’s heart, that rescues and receives you and me and revealing to us what it means to be truly loved wholeheartedly, undeservedly even scandalously.
Washed by Him
Once the light fades or the tide turns, the mudlarker takes their haul of treasures and trinkets retrieved from the river home. There, the mudlarker’s next task is cleaning them up and gently scrubbing and extricating the remaining mud and slime from the river. This patient task restores the object making it recognisable and with certain objects found, the stamp of the maker is now visible.
This bears a resemblance to the patient labour of love of Christs work through the Holy Spirit within us as we are purified, beautified and our minds our renewed that we may reflect with ever greater crystal clarity our saviour who first rescued us.
“He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion”
Philippians 1:6 (NIV)
Does this not draw you to your knees in joyful worship? Our value has been decreed by him to be the highest price imaginable, for given for you and me He was, the unmerited gift, that we might know him intimately for now and into eternity. Glory to your name oh Jesus Christ our precious saviour. Amen.
© 2022, Benjamin Trowbridge
Abba's Dearly Beloved 