“Nevertheless, some good is found in you…” (2 Chronicles 19:3 ESV)

picture courtesy of Pixabay

Over the years, my husband and I have done a lot traveling to various locations across the United States. On one summer, as we sped down the grey strip of highway to Missouri, I couldn’t help but notice the wildflowers along the road brightening the green landscape. White Queen Anne’s lace frosted the hollows, and waving green stems dotted with tiny blue and yellow flowers covered the edge of the road. Plate-sized white blooms, resembling hibiscus, trailed over fences and climbed corn stalks, obviously weeds to the farmers and very out of place in the gigantic corn fields sporting yellow tassels.

I couldn’t identify the weedy blue and yellow wildflowers, but I know they, along with the Queen Anne’s lace, are not things most gardeners cultivate in their gardens. In fact, we vigorously try to eradicate such things from our home landscapes. Yet, all these flowers are beautiful in drifts along the road, and I love to look at them.

Like a gardener who wants an immaculately groomed flowerbed, God couldn’t tolerate the weeds of sin in his Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve disobeyed and blighted the landscape with sin, God yanked them out of his unspoiled garden and tossed them outside the fence, much like I’ve done with the weeds in my garden.

I mercilessly trash my weeds no matter how pretty their flowers might be, because I don’t want them to ever show up in my garden again.  But God was kinder to humanity than I am to my weeds. Even though they were no longer inside the boundaries of the garden gates, God still saw Adam and Eve’s, and ultimately our, potential for beauty. Through Christ’s sacrifice, He provided a way for us all to become part of his garden once again.  

As I admired the weedy, flower-filled berms and hollows along the roadway that summer day, I whispered a “Thank you,” to God for being able to see the beauty of weeds in bloom. Because, except for the grace of God, I am only a weed along the roadside, waiting for a home in a perfect Garden of Eden.

Do you see the beauty of wildflowers in a landscape?  More importantly, do you see the beauty and potential in God’s children, even those who might not be beautiful on the outside?

God’s Wildflowers (© Catherine Hershberger 8/19/13)

About the Author:

Catherine is a member of Greendale First Church of Christ. She is also an award-winning author of sweet and inspirational romance under the pen name of Catherine Castle. Many of her devotions have appeared on various places on the internet. You can find her books on her Amazon Author page or at Barnes and Noble.