Dandelions...

Every spring we prune and cut and mulch our lawns to be sure they look the best "green" as possible. Now is the time I see many a men out kicking dirt around frustrated at the meer sight of a tiny hint of yellow popping up among the sea of green. I must tell the truth that crisp canary yellow invasiveness of the dandelion can be very frustrating to keep out of the pallet of green. However after to today I will never look at a dandelion with disgust again...

As we walked along the yard's edge the bees and butterflies flew about and coming to the end of the yard we saw a large patch of bright yellow; A bright wonderful pillow of yellow dandelions. You would have thought our yard was just a dandelion patch planted on purpose. Jayci was now a few feet behind me and I could see the joy in her eyes as she knelt down to pick her first dandelion. She picked another and then another and soon she had a whole bouquet of dandy dandelions. She looked up to find me and started running towards me, "Mommy...Mommy...(in an out of breath voice) Mommy..." As she reached me she was clearly out of breath after only running twenty feet. She stopped short of my feet and handed me the bouquet she so carefully picked... and after a few minutes of trying to catch her breath that was so shortly lost she finally said to me, "Mommy...they are so beautiful...I picked them for you cause I wuv you!" My heart melted of course and yet it was heavy at the same time. The effort it took for Jayci to pick those dandelions for me took all of her strength and yet she still pushed on running to give me her beautiful collection of what someone else would call a weed. Suddenly I find myself appreciating the dandelion's beauty that God has created. What someone else finds as a nuisance now becomes a beautiful reminder of His many gifts we overlook.