Thoughts while peeling oranges

I feel like I've just discovered oranges.  I was asked at the superbowl party to peel one for Abby, and really enjoyed it. My sister commented about how much she hates oranges -- specifically the smell that sticks on your hands the rest of the day. I can't stand her love of cucumbers, so I guess we're even.  Personally, I find the smell refreshing.

I was peeling an orange for Abby this morning, because she said she wanted some, but then she ate one piece and then was "all done". I went to tremendous effort to clean that orange, and wasn't about to let it go to waste, so I packed it up put it away.  I then quickly cleaned up the rest of her food, including some animal crackers, which I just threw away without hesitation.

It got me thinking about all the food we waste and throw out.  I know that as a family we save a lot of the food we make, but usually toss leftovers of things we didn't make.  I was wondering if as a society, we would be less wasteful, if we MADE more of our food. Physically made it, or grew it, or prepared it.  I throw out gallons of coffee each year -- perhaps if I went to the effort of actually grinding or preparing beans for it each morning, I wouldn't?

On what might seem like an unrelated note, Abby and I started working on a puzzle together.  We have lost a number of pieces -- at this point probably a third of the pieces are gone, and it makes it quite difficult to do.  It reminded me of the times when I had completed much larger puzzles, only to find one missing piece.  What great efforts we went through to find that one missing piece!

It reminded me of the story of the lost sheep. I have to admit, I thought the shepherd in that story was completely nuts, leaving 99 sheep to just look after one sheep which was probably stupid for getting lost anyway, and by now is probably dripping of its own blood in some lions mouth.  But I finally made the connection.  That lost sheep is the missing piece of the puzzle. It is the piece of the orange.  I didn't care about the sheep, because I had no investment in it whatsoever -- but the story makes great sense if you have. Who would complete a 1000 piece puzzle only to stop at the end with one piece missing and with Eeyore-like fatalism cry "Oh well, guess it'll show up next time" and pack everything up?

One final thought -- Ephesians 2:10 says "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." and Philippians 1:6 says that "he who began this good work in you will carry it on to completion." Is this feeling of not wanting to waste, throw away, or lose something we work on an inherent feeling that we get because God feels the same way? Do we feel that way because we are made in his image?