Junkyard Jewel

Maya Azucena wrote and recorded a song that is so beautiful and powerful that the first time I heard it I almost cried. Maybe it touched me so deeply because it described me and so many other people that I know. The name of the song is, “Junkyard Jewel.” Some of the lyrics are:

He was a Junkyard Jewel
Hidden in trash
Forgotten too long
Until found at last
Junkyard Jewel
With so much inside
Hidden from the rest
As a matter of pride

The world is full of junkyard jewels. They have lost their way and are living in a world of hopelessness. Some of them are in prison. Some of them are on drugs. Some of them are prostitutes. Some of them are in gangs. They are not bad people. Many of them are intelligent and talented. But they are victims of their environment.
Dr. Martin Luther King said, “There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society with a large segment of people who feel that they have no stake in it. People, who have a stake in their society, protect it. But when they don’t have a stake in it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.”

Many of our young men and young women feel that they have no stake in this society. They have become disenfranchised. They have no jobs and they see no future. Many of our young people are being exposed to first-class jails and second-class schools. They are Junkyard Jewels.

Many people are going to the church for help. The sick, the hungry, the alcoholics, the drug addicts, the gang members, men and women who have just gotten out of prison. They are going to the church looking for help.

But what is the church’s response? Many times we are saying, “Send them away. We don’t want those people with all kinds of diseases coming in here infecting the rest of us. Send them away. We don’t want those crack heads and drunks coming in here with our children. Send them away. We don’t want those homeless people coming in here smelling up our church. Send them away. We don’t want those jailbirds and gang members coming in here starting trouble, pastor. Send them away.”

The church is looking at a world full of lost and hurting people who are coming to us for help. But we are saying, “Send them away. Let them find help someplace else.” But I can hear Jesus saying, loud and clear, “They don’t need to go away. These are my Junkyard Jewels. You help them.”

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