I was driving last week down one of our back county roads.
Tall tasseled green corn stood in formation on each side of the highway.
Lining both sides of the road as far as I could see grew countless blue dayflowers.
Delicate Queen Anne’s Lace danced in the breeze.
Even the clover blossomed in pick colors.
“Thank you” tumbled out of my mouth.
The beauty of God’s world captured my voice and all I could say was “Thank you.”
“Thank you, Lord God, for crafting these dazzling details in Your creation.”
If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is “thank you,” that would suffice. —Meister Eckhart
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I realized later that except for the corn, the beauty I experienced that day arrived in the form of unwanted weeds. In fact the blue dayflowers are classified as noxious and hard to control.
Made me wonder:
What do I cling to that would be categorized as toxic?
Are there other unwelcomed “weeds” that I think are useless, unnecessary and only a nuisance that I should be thankful for?
What splendor have I cast off that if I looked once again I would see its beauty?
God’s nature overflows with lessons, doesn’t it? Even with the weeds, He is teaching us.
Now I know all the Bible verses about weeds and the gardening words of wisdom about controlling them, but this week I also saw beauty in weeds.
Found some interesting quotes about weeds that made me appreciate weeds a little more:
A weed is but an unloved flower. ~Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Weeds are nature’s graffiti. ~Janice Maeditere
Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them. ~A.A. Milne
What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
I will end with this blessing for you:
May all your weeds be wildflowers. ~Author Unknown
P.S. Just realized today’s post is my 400th on this blog. Thanks for reading!!
Yay for 400, Jean!
So many beauties that my kids consider flowers are actually weeds…but we don’t care. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, yes?!
What a neat summary:
he pretty-but-noxious and the unwanted-but-beautiful in life.
love it
And Colleen I have read and really like that story from Corrie ten Boom but hadn’t related it to this post. Thanks for connecting that for me. wonderful!
Congrats on your 400th!
This post reminded me of Corrie Ten Boom’s story about thanking God for the fleas!! It is a great story – the general gist of it is that there were fleas in their baracks in the concentration camp so the guards never came in and so never caught them having their own private bible study!!
My children loved the story and would often say, when things got rough, thank God for the fleas!
God bless!
I’m a wildflower lover myself and enjoyed this post, Jean! Much food for thought about the pretty-but-noxious and the unwanted-but-beautiful in life.
I apologize for not responding to your comments earlier. We have been without Internet past two days. Amazing how addicted we can get to this technology. That is a post in itself!
Thank you for all your warm comments. may we all find treasures within our weeds!
Happy 400th post, Jean! Oh, how the Lord has used you during this time, sweet friend.
Tonight, my friend cancelled dinner on me, and while I was huffy for a bit, I started to see the negative turn into positive, something that was taken away actually being a gift of sorts.
Your photos are great! I loved ’em. Congrats on your 400th! Love the quote, weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them. That’s gonna be my mantra for my yard. :p
Congrats on your 400th, Jeanie! I love this post. Just got home from my first day back at school. Some students are lovely flowers and others…well, you can guess. But this made me look at that in a totally different light! Love it!
Happy 400th post Jean! Your writing never fails to inspire and encourage me, and I’m Blessed each time I visit.
My wife and I have had these discussions before, as I’m not a “gardening person” (plants tend to die around me… lol), and she’s quite at home tending the soil…
“The flowers look lovely Dear!” I say…
“They’re weeds Love… They need to be pulled.” She replies.
“Well, they’re pretty weeds at least.” 🙂
Lessons abound in God’s Creation should we choose to see them… Thank you for seeing them Jean.
Have a Blessed Day!
I actually love weeds. Yesterday i went on a hike with my camera and took many photos of weeds as there were no flowers. They gave me joy! It was funny, I was feeling down so decided to go look for beauty! And I found it.
I actually love weeds. Yesterday i went on a hike with my camera and took many photos of weeds as there were no flowers. They gave me joy! It was funny, I was feeling down so decided to go look for beauty! And I found it.
I like the spiritual application you’re drawn. Sometimes the things we think of as “nuisances” can be God’s way of pruning US. 🙂
Welcome to the High Calling blog network–we’re glad to have you! I’ve written for several Barbour devotional books and love speaking, so I feel like we could share a cup of tea and have lots to talk about!
Just pulled weeds from my garden over the lunch hour too. Isn;t God’s world full of lessons?
Reading this post one word came to my mind..the bible speaks that God’s creation will speak of Him amen
You are beginning to have my mindset about nature. I can always see questions and answers in His creation. I recently wrote about those beautiful yellow weeds that cover the fields. Beautiful pictures too.