By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

We’ve not had much rain this spring, so the yard hasn’t needed quite as much attention as usual.  But, even so, those little clovers, dandelions, and other such things continue to thrive and to pop up anywhere and everywhere you look – even these things in my picture.

I don’t give them a name.  That’s mainly because I don’t know their name.  They are small, white, and not ugly.  They must be a flower, right?  But they randomly pop up in the middle of the yard with no rhyme or reason.  So, they must be a weed, right?

Who knows?

A flower or a weed.  That, as Shakespeare would say, is the question.  If we take the time to dig in the dirt, fertilize the soil, and plant the seeds, will everything that comes up be a flower?  If we simply ignore the planting, allow the yard to do its own thing, and wait to see, will everything that comes up be a weed?  Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder.

You can pick those white clovers, purple clovers, yellow dandelions, those very tiny purple (some say blue) flowers, and even these little white things, put them all in a little container of water, and you have a beautiful bouquet.  Even the weeds look like pretty flowers when someone takes the time to group them together and share them.

I’m sure there is a scientist somewhere that could tell me exactly how to differentiate between a flower and a weed.  But I must tell you that it doesn’t really matter to me.  I know that in God’s great garden of life, I’m probably one of the toughest and ugliest weeds there is.  Oh, but when I stand next to all of you, I’m just as pretty.  My name may be “weed,” but I will claim the title of “flower.”  I may be nothing much in this old world, but in God’s eyes, I am most beautiful.  —  WE are most beautiful, especially when you get all of us weeds together.  We make a wonderful bouquet.

Weed?  or Flower?  What will you be for Jesus this week?

Just a thought.