PERSPECTIVE ON A DANDELION

Have you ever gotten down to the level of a dandelion? The closest I get to these plants is with my dandelion picker because I am intent on digging them from my otherwise luscious green lawn. I pass judgment on each bright yellow flower as a weed that must go!

Recently, I was given a fresh perspective on this yellow flower. Someone had gotten way down to the level of a dandelion to take a video of it waving in the gentle breeze. It sat there ever so pretty in this section of lush green grass. The video was used as a backdrop at church to display the words of a worship song. I no longer remember the song we sang, but I have not been able to forget that video of the dandelion.

I kept thinking about that yellow flower as a weed growing in someone’s yard. How like the weed of sin that exists in my life producing more seeds to sprout unless they are killed. Those yellow flowers are bright and cheery and attractive to the innocent child. How many mothers have received a bouquet of these bright yellow flowers picked by a child and given with all the love of the heart to Mom? It reminds me of sin that is so attractive, I want to keep it like a bouquet to enjoy, i.e. nursing a grudge against someone who hurt me deeply and plotting a way to hurt him or her. 

Again, I recall my childhood delight to take those white dandelion puff balls to see how far I could spread those seeds with one puff of my breath. Sin unchecked in my life or yours can “drift” to negatively touch the lives of those close to us in our homes, our communities, our work environments.

As I was taking photos of dandelions to post with this essay, I had to stoop down to the level of the ground where these plants were growing. I was reminded how God sent Jesus Christ down to our level to be born as a baby and grow to adulthood. He experienced joy and sorrow, loving parents and friends, acceptance and rejection, pain and death. Jesus showed us how to live with grace and dignity depending on God’s love and power through prayer.

Jesus Christ died to help us eliminate sin in our lives. Since Jesus has risen from the dead, the Holy Spirit will live with anyone who invites Jesus into his or her life. Through the Holy Spirit, God will do his work of transformation ever so slowly eradicating those seeds of sin.

In this process, God is preparing us for that day when he will establish a new heaven and a new earth that will be perfect in every way – no weeds of sin. I cannot imagine what that will be like. It will be such a radical transformation to see that cheery yellow dandelion as a perfect thing of beauty and no longer a weed.

For Reflection:

Can you recognize the "dandelion/s" in your life?

Have you discovered a successful elimination for this weed in your lawn? What can that teach you about eliminating the sin weed in your life?

Where in nature have you seen examples of transformation?