Flowers among the Weeds

Deadnettle (L); Henbit (R): a cool season broadleaf weed.

On a warm-ish sort of day a couple of weeks ago, John went into the bee hives to check things out. He noticed some tiny purple flowers in the hive. What?? Flowers in the hive? This is very, very strange. It is the dead of winter here, there is nothing blooming anywhere. Not only that, but bees don't carry flowers back to the hive, do they? John did many searches online, read some of his bee books and contacted some other bee keepers to see if bees commonly carry flowers back to the hive. No luck. What a mystery!

This week, as he was headed down our street his eye caught a glimpse of a tiny spec of purple along the side of the road. He locked up the brakes and pulled over. He ran over to our neighbor's yard and picked some of the purple flowers growing from a patch of weeds. This was it! An exact match to the purple flowers he found in the hives. John called me to tell me that he had finally found what he had been searching for. We were so excited. I'm not sure why we were excited but it felt like had completed a mission or something. Later that same day I was pulling out of our driveway and stopped to check the mail. I looked down below the mailbox and saw a whole clump of the same type weeds with teeny tiny purple flowers on them. Right in my own driveway!! I looked across the street and there they were. These weeds are everywhere. Why had we over looked the flowers all this time? So, as with many of our farm experiences, this got the two of us thinking about how this situation pertains to our life on earth. The more I think about it the more similarities I find.

The world is so full of weeds that sometimes it is simple to overlook the flowers. It is our nature to look at life's problems as just that... a problem. I, for one, am guilty of always dwelling on the negative in a situation. If you need a grim outlook, just call me... I can show you the worst scenario! The bees however, see the flowers! It is their nature to look for the positive in life. They don't grumble to each other about the lack of pollen outside the hive. They just carry on with their duties and search for life in the dead of winter, promises of spring and flowers among the weeds. Just as an herbicide is a quick remedy for a weed, I often find myself trying to rid my life of problems. But, as in this situation, sometimes God accomplishes his will in unexpected ways. I am confident that he can use the "weeds" of life to bring forth goodness. Today, I pray that when faced with discomfort or distress, I will truly surrender my will, seek God's face and allow Him to sustain me. For it is only then that my life will glorify Him. In seeking Jesus each day, He will show me the flowers among the weeds.

Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. Isaiah 46:4