This Week’s Thought

Posted on by Horizon Professional Services
Flower

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.

This Week’s Thought

Posted on by Horizon Professional Services

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

You know from my previous “thoughts” from time to time that as I travel, I tend to photograph unusual flowers, plants, rocks, trees, etc.  You’ll see one of those trees in this picture.  You may not think it’s that unusual.  It looks like any normal tree might.  But the reason I took this picture was because of what I had just read and found out about the tree and a few others very similar nearby.

This is an olive tree.  That’s unusual in itself to me, since most of the trees that grow where we live are pine or oak.  This olive tree was one of several planted in what is now a downtown area of historic Scottsdale, Arizona.  They were planted to stand as a break from the desert winds before most of those buildings were there.  And these olive trees are now well over 125 years old, having all been planted in 1896.  

They are unusual.  They stand out.  And they were planted with a purpose.  These things ought to describe us as Christians.

We certainly were planted with a purpose.  God intends for us to love, serve, and worship Him, and He intends for us to be a bright light in a dark world.  As such, we are automatically unusual, and we should stand out from all the rest.  

I don’t know that I want a sign posted near me to say how old I am and why I was put here.  On the other hand, by living as a Child of the Father, I am basically wearing a sign just like that.  I call myself by His name, and I represent Him wherever I go — even in odd downtown desert places where I might not be expected to survive.

Planted with a purpose.  Growing with His help.  Representing Him to all who pass by.  Those are wonderful things on which to focus in this brand new year.

Just a thought.