I finally completed all the required safety checks and paperwork to get my car reregistered. What a journey it was!
About a month ago I was involved in an auto accident. My insurance adjuster assessed my car to be a total loss, even though the damage was mostly cosmetic in nature. That is, it did not compromise the structural integrity of the car, and did not affect any mechanical or electrical functioning of the vehicle. But the estimated cost for repair was greater than the car’s value. So it was deemed a total loss. Yet I decided to keep the car. And through a recommendation of my good neighbor, I was able to have the damage repaired at a very affordable price. It still was a better option than having to buy another car.
I did not realize, though, that the Department of Motor Vehicles had certain requirements about my decision to keep my car. It is now considered a salvaged vehicle. As such, it was necessary to reregister the car. But to do so, I needed to secure authorized certifications that it still was functioning as it should. The process was inconvenient. But I’m glad my car passed all the safety checks, and I still get to drive it.
I’ve been thinking about this matter of salvaging a damaged item. To salvage is to “retrieve or preserve (something) from potential loss or adverse circumstances” (New Oxford Dictionary). In this society, people seem too eager to discard something that is broken or damaged. One rarely bothers to consider the possibility that it can be repaired. I recall walking around a large auto dismantler yard looking for a part that I needed, and being amazed at the volume of discarded cars in that junkyard. I wondered how many of them were still repairable but their owners did not bother to restore them.
I guess it is so much easier to replace a broken piece of equipment. Keeping them can be inconvenient. But the problem is, many times this attitude of readily discarding what is broken is often extended to people and relationships. We’re not willing to work at salvaging them. We don’t like the hassle it brings. We simply walk away, or push them away.
I’m just glad God did not choose to discard broken humanity. He was not willing to consider us a total loss. God considered it worthwhile to salvage broken humanity. He chose the inconvenience of making a way, through the work of Jesus on the cross, to retrieve and preserve us from the eternal loss that our own brokenness imposes on us.
From damaged goods to salvaged goods, I’m good with that!
—Keith Y. Jainga