Often it is so hard for me to accept difficult things and to see them as ‘meant to be.’
Something that I read today made me think of this picture of Summer from over 5 years ago. She saw the dandelions in the field beside my parents’ house and ran over. She couldn’t pick enough or blow enough. These were a dream come true and they were growing where they were meant to be, in her eyes. She was in heaven with my dad for quite some time.
Today the author of a book I’m reading told a story about her daughter finding dandelions but not wanting to pick them because they were ‘just weeds’. They weren’t meant to be where they were.
Then she made this statement: “A plant isn’t a flower but a weed only by function of its place.” And her prayer said, “All that I have deemed weeds in my life are only weeds by function of whether I want them in this place or not.”
This hit me HARD. They are not beautiful if they aren’t where you think they were meant to be.
When Summer saw the dandelions she thought they were beautiful and fun…there couldn’t have been too many. When you drive by a wild field in spring, the bright yellow looks so pretty but when you see one in your yard, you want it out ASAP. It’s ugly, a nuisance, it will only bring more weeds, you don’t want it to complete its cycle…it’s just not in the right place.
It’s not where it is supposed to be or meant to be – at least not in your eyes.
So often I see my life this way. It’s easy to tell others to be grateful, or to pray through it, or that God is using it…until it is in my own yard. When I see it on my territory I don’t like it because it isn’t meant to be there – not in my eyes.
I need to see the beauty in my life’s dandelions…that they are also a beautiful flower that grow wildly in nature and are astounding in color. Just because they have been broad-brushed under the title of ‘weed’ doesn’t mean there is nothing good or beautiful about them. They are meant to be somewhere.
I hope going forward that I can view the things that I see as ugly or a nuisance as a hand of God…something beautiful…something that can change me and make me grow.
Maybe I think these hard things are weeds but in God’s eyes, He’s got them exactly where they were meant to be.
Maybe I didn’t choose to have them or plant them. Maybe I wanted my yard to be a perfect shade of green without a blemish in sight…but God chooses to add a splash of color. It can be something I begrudge or something I embrace.
And who knows? They might lead to good things…like Summer blowing on one and it being caught up in the wind and taken who-knows-where. I don’t want to forget this picture of her finding joy in the weeds.
May I run in the fields today…and not just immediately go get some weed-killer.