Shopping Redemption

My mom and I enjoyed such a lovely day of Christmas shopping in the South Side Works, one of Pittsburgh's most newly renovated areas. You can see a picture of what the area looks like now (left) with a Joseph Beth Bookstore, Cheesecake Factory, movie theatre, and all kinds of fun stores like White Black, H & M, Sur La Table, and Sharper Image which has more gadgets than I ever thought possible. It was like an Air Mall catalogue come to life. We also briefly went to the Waterfront (right), another great area that was renovated a few years before the South Side area that includes more shopping and some of Pittsburgh's most wonderful array of restaurants.

What I found to be truly remarkable about the areas, though, was thinking about what the land used to be. Here are two pictures of both shopping areas before the lovely renovations of recent years. You can see that they were the quintessential images that most people pictured when they thought of Pittsburgh, the days when men would go to work in the morning wearing a white shirt and come home wearing a black one, the days when "Steel City" didn't have any connection to a football team, but rather to the industry that represented the city's livelihood.

As the steel industry lost its power and presence in the national and international economy, so did these previously "booming areas" in the city's geography. Many of these areas became extremely depressed and even dangerous, with the now run-down and graffitied homes serving as empty shells of the luxurious residences they once were. If someone had said twenty years ago that these areas would become some of Pittsburgh's most high-end shopping and recreation areas, I'm pretty sure the response would have simply been a blank stare followed by blatant laughter in their face. The person who could first imagine and cast the vision for these areas was a true visionary and risk-taker.

It made me appreciate all the more the even greater risk and vision our Heavenly Father had when He chose to redeem me and my brothers and sisters in Christ. How He can see us as a redeemed, changed, and complete child in the midst of our sinful and broken state is nothing short of miraculous, nothing short of seeing a multi-million dollar metroplex in the middle of a long-forgotten steel mill. Praise God for both redemptions, one that I enjoyed today and the other in which I will continue to delight for all of eternity!