The Lesson of the Dandelion

And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:12 (NKJ)

Some time ago, I had the idea of writing a devotional book about things I saw in nature on my walks around the farm. I stalled after coming up with maybe a dozen devotionals and put the project on the shelf. But a few of them,including this one, can be found on my website. I decided to share this one here because a couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of a yellow wildflower I had spotted on my walk. That led to another little yellow flower picture and it became a game to see how many days I could spot a different new yellow flower on my walks. I'm up to flower number 16 and until today, I hadn't admitted spotting that yellow dandelion. But now it's the dandelion's day. So that's why I'm posting what I imagine God might have thought after he created the dandelion. 

The Lesson of the Dandelion

   God made the dandelion and said, "It is good. This plant is tough but has a bloom like a spot of sun to make my children smile. It is plentiful so they can eat the leaves and still never lack for flowers." 

He smiled when the seed ball popped up. "Yes, my little children will have fun with that, and look at all the fresh seeds for my songbirds weary from the winter. Yes, it is good."

Ah, the dandelion, that common yellow flower that blooms from spring to fall and even sometimes in the dead of winter after a few days of sunshine. This spring was a particularly good dandelion season. For a while all the lawns and fields were dotted with their sunspots. The roar of lawnmowers soon followed, but dandelions know when to duck their heads so that the next day they can push their white fluffy seed balls high into the air to cover the lawns like snow. It's not hard to imagine God smiling when His little children run out to free the seeds to the wind or when the birds enjoy the springtime feast or when mothers receive wilted bouquets of the blooms from small warm fists. Love in its purest form. 

Yet has there ever been any other plant that more money or labor has been spent attempting to eradicate? We poison it, chop it, dig it out by the roots, and still the dandelion not only survives, but flourishes.

The early Christians had that same staying power as the world tried to destroy them, but they put their trust in Jesus and would not be conquered. They kept spreading the seed of the Good News around the world. 

Are we sunspots of God's love in whatever place we're planted? Do we share the seeds of our faith with those who need nourishment after a hard winter? Do we remember the children to be sure the message is always carried on? Does God look down at what we’re doing and say, "Yes, it is good?"

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Thanks for reading.

Color the World

A few years ago when my writing wasn't going so well, I was exploring new options. One of those was writing devotionals inspired by things out here on the farm. I thought if I could come up with one devotional per week, I could turn it into a Hiker's Devotional. Then my fiction writing began to get rolling again and I let the devotional idea slide into the background. However, I did write ten or twelve, and included a few of them on my website. The following is one of those. Hope you enjoy it.

Do you like wildflowers? I do. You might even go so far as to call me a wildflower nut, even when wildflower is no more than a nice word for a weed that just happens to have some kind of bloom. I like flowers of all kinds and even a tiny blossom in the grass that hardly looks important enough to have a name can stop me in my tracks for a closer look. 

One day a few springs ago, I was walking across our pasture field when I spotted a tiny blue bloom I hadn't noticed before. The flower was not as big around as a pencil eraser, and the four little petals were a delicate blue. The flower seemed to be lifting its head bravely out of the grass to reach for the sun. Yet because it was so small, its color was almost drowned out by the green of the grass blades.

Then when I stood up, I noticed there wasn't just one of these little flowers. There were hundreds of them. So many that when I looked across the field, the ground turned a hazy blue. 

 
As Christians we can sometimes feel like that small, insignificant flower thinking we can't make a difference in the world of grass blades around us. Yet if we open our lives to the "Son" we can make a difference no matter how small, and if we join together with all the other Christians in the world around us, we can change the color of the world.

Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love. I Corinthians 16:12-14 (NKJ)