Junk, Jesus, and a Guy Named Craig

Halloween is approaching, so I have a story about haunted barns, Zacchaeus, and free junk on Craigslist. No seriously, I do. 

There’s a shed at the Goble Ranch we simply call the back shed. It was where we stored stuff that was too good to throw away but too crappy to actually use. The shed was a purgatory for junk.

I grew up in junkyards, so I was okay with it. But even I had to admit—eventually—it was time to clean house.

We sorted through everything. Kept about a fourth. Sold another fourth. And the other half? We listed it in Craigslist’s free category.

Stuff vanished fast. One guy, let’s call him Craig—because his name was Craig—showed up with a pickup and trailer. He got out, looked around, introduced himself, and said,

“You know, I’ve been here before.”

Craig explained that back in the 1970s, when he was just a teenager, he had a crush on a girl. She invited him to her church youth group Halloween party—hosted at the Goble Ranch.

He pointed to our barn and said, “That was fixed up as a haunted house. Scared the hell out of all of us.”

And I remembered. Oh, did I remember.

I was a teenager myself and put a ton of work into that haunted barn. It was all my design and mostly all my ideas. It had a working gallows. Vampires in full costume. A graveyard. Flying ghosts. My dad even borrowed a coffin from the local mortuary and convinced a church deacon to lay in it. One teenager fainted. (Okay, maybe we went too far.)

But man, it was fun. And unforgettable.

Craig didn’t remember much about the girl, but he did remember the night. He wasn’t a big talker, but he more or less said, “I was just a kid, you know? It felt really good to be around people who took an interest in me. Not just the girl. Everyone. It was a blast. It changed how I thought about religious people.”

Mind if I rephrase Craig’s comments? He was a typical teenager who wanted to be valued. He wanted to be seen.

Which brings me to Zacchaeus.

He climbed a tree to see Jesus—that’s the part kids love. But the deeper truth is that Jesus saw him. A tax collector despised for working with the Romans, Zacchaeus wasn’t exactly popular. Yet Jesus stopped, looked up, and called him by name.

And it changed his life.

The same pattern repeats across the Gospels: the Samaritan woman at the well. The Centurion with a sick servant. The Canaanite woman. The unnamed sinners and outcasts. Over and over, Jesus saw people that nobody else bothered to see.

Craig doesn’t have a dramatic conversion story. He didn’t give away half his wealth or preach on street corners. He just lived a good life, with a little more peace about who he was.

That’s a good thing. And it came about, at least in part, because he was seen.

A haunted barn, a church youth group, and a shed full of junk. God works in mysterious ways.