Why don't we Hoard people?

I know! Weird question for sure, but walk and talk with me through this.  Daran and I had a crazy idea that we would build a house back in Missouri.  There are so many stories to tell about that little adventure like reading a book to learn how to rough in the plumbing and almost catching the house on fire - oh, and the neighbors house too, sort of. 

I had this vivid memory the other day though.  Weird memory, but vivid.  When we were done with this crazy ordeal of building a house, we had a ton of left over building materials. There were piles scattered everywhere - in the yard, in the garage, in the basement, etc.  Left over bricks, tile, half a box of decorative stone, that wrapping paper stuff for the house, an extra hose bib (I miscounted), a nice window with a chip in the frame (the sheet rockers got a little overzealous throwing stuff out the window), and more.  Now what?  What do we do with all this really expensive, useless stuff that we no longer need.  Do you know that that wrapping paper stuff for your house is like $200 plus per roll?  At least it was back then.  We had almost a full roll leftover.  What was I supposed to do with that.  I struggled.  I saw the value in all of this stuff.  I however didn’t see the value in the broken, discarded pieces of brick.  What do you do with broken pieces of brick.  If I were to get really creative and have a lot of time on my hands, I could maybe piece it together into a …?

I remember the day they laid the brick.  A team of Hispanic men (I think it was a family) came out and completed the job at top speed.  I loved watching them, not just because they were making my dreams come true, but because of their fluidity and dance-like artistry.  Everyone had a job and was getting it done.  My favorite person to watch was a bent-over elderly man in brown sandals.  You may have realized by now that I am intrigued and a little in love with the elderly.  I learn so much from them.  I digress though.  This man was standing by the fresh pile of bricks and expertly handing them up.  He made quick decisions.  If there was a brick that happened to be broken or misshapen, he would quickly discard it.  There was no use going through the extra work to make it fit.  It literally could throw off the intricate leveling of the wall of bricks.  It could be an eyesore if someone noticed it was broken or misshapen.  Other than the fact that I was mesmerized by the cute old man in the open-toe sandals that could at any moment drop a brick on his toe and break it, I was perplexed by what to do with the rejected bricks on the ground.  

At that time I did not realize the picture before me.  The chief stone was in that pile.  The corner stone.  The stone on which all could be built into the most exquisite structure. The rejected stone is hidden in that pile.

After we built the house, it took us quite a while to get rid of all the rejected building material.  Only one pile was made into something exquisite.  Our friends took the pile of broken and rejected slate tile and tiled the floor around their wood stove in an intricate pattern.  Why did it take so long to get rid of all that stuff that I could not make useful, or rather, would take so much effort to make useful?  I saw the value lost.  I hoarded rejected building materials because I saw value in them.  I even hoard lids, in case I find the container one day, cords, because I don’t know if they are useful, board games, because we may play them in another decade, books, because I might want to read that again (I really never do), cleaning gadgets, because I love cleaning gadgets and I might need that crevice tool one day to clean out the tracks for the sliding glass door.  

Why don’t I do that with people?  Do I just discard people that are broken because it would be too difficult and require too much work to make them fit into the building of my life and ministry?  Is it possible that in rejecting someone so quickly, I have overlooked the cornerstone, the chief stone?  They are socially awkward, so they wear me out because they offend everybody.  They have no emotional intelligence, so they wear me out because they offend me.  They are needy, so I get tired of meeting their needs.  They smell, so I can’t be near them because my nose is offended.  I know that we are not to hold onto everyone, but have I put someone in the “reject” pile that could have made the structure of my life more beautiful, more exquisite, more challenging.  I fear that the treasure is hidden in the pile of rejected people, and we need them more than they need us.