Dandelions

This is a good year for dandelions.  Lawns everywhere are sprinkled with their golden hue and dusted with their white tufts of seeds.  Every Spring our neighbor across the street takes his weed killer and sprays each dandelion individually.  This always makes me a little sad because each one of my girls has loved picking dandelions, bringing me the soft yellow blossom with its awkward gangly stem saying, "Here Mommy, I got you a flower."  Some wicked person, however, has told my oldest daughter that dandelions are in fact weeds.  Innocence lost.  Still, once the dandelions have seemingly overnight grown tall and turned to white puffs, she picks them and makes a wish before blowing the seeds away.  So as I watch my neighbor labor (probably in vain since my kids are little dandelion seed dispersers) to eradicate all the dandelions from his lawn I begin to wonder what a world free of dandelions would be like. 

We love to label things...to classify everything into neat, identifiable groups.  We don't stop with plants or even with the animal kingdom, but as soon as we come into this world we are labeled.  We use our eyes to make judgements about the people we see, placing them in this or that group...and woe to the person who doesn't fit into any mold we have constructed.  Bring out the weed killer...we have found a dandelion.  We want our garden to be full of nice cultivated flowers.  But the truth is, this world needs dandelions.  Just ask the bees who can barely fly because their legs are so heavy with pollen.  If all the dandelions were gone, something magical and important would be missing from the world. 

Are you a dandelion?  Are people telling you that you don't belong here, that you are a weed that has no place in the garden?  I have good news for you.  Man-made stereotypes do not apply to you...your true identity isn't found here, and doesn't come from people.  Before this world even existed, before there were plants and animals to be classified, you were KNOWN.  And if you belong to God you were not only known, but CHOSEN.  Before you were born into whatever family, race, class, God knew you and chose you to be in HIS family.  So you are not a weed, you are a beautiful, precious FLOWER.  You have a purpose, a crucial necessary role to play.  Your true identity is found in Him, the one who purchased you with the blood of His Son, Jesus.  You are not worthless...you are PRICELESS.  So when someone is telling you who you are, remember who you TRULY are:  You are known, you are chosen, you are beautiful, you are precious, you are priceless.

How would your life change if you saw yourself as He sees you?  How would you act differently if you saw others as He sees them?  Lord, give us your eyes to see ourselves and others as you do, not looking at the outside or the labels, but looking at the heart.