Dandelions Never Lie

                               By Phil Scovell





          After school, I  decided to take the short route.  Cutting down a
     back street, I began approaching an opened field I would have  to walk
     through to regain the street which intersected with the street I lived
     on.  I saw it coming as if it were a morning rising sun.  I stopped at
     the end of the backyard of the person's house and stared in amazement.
     It  was probably about 200 feet to  the back of the owner's house from
     where I  stood and about 75 feet wide.  There was no fence.  More than
     half  of that space was  filled wall to wall, sort  of speak, with the
     brightest and prettiest  yellow I had ever  seen.  I stood  and let my
     eyes take  in the  beautiful yellow, mixed  with some greenery,  for a
     long time.  I had never seen that large of a patch of dandelions in my
     life.  Everybody I knew, thought they were a nuisance, and called them
     weeds.   People spent hours  in their  yards in  our neighborhood,  my
     father included,  poisoning or digging  up dandelions by the  roots to
     get  rid of them.   A beautiful yard,  I grew up  thinking, was a lush
     green  but this  person's backyard  was a  beautiful carpet  of bright
     yellow.   Yet, here I was,  standing at the edge  of a pool of yellow,
     feeling  rapturous,  transcended,  almost  emotionally  ethereal,  and
     wanting to walk  through, lay in,  and become lost  in the  beautiful,
     brilliantly colored, sea of  yellow, which spread out before  me as if
     it were a solar  reflection of light.  Its beauty, on  the other hand,
     kept  me  from  disturbing  the   yellow  sea  of  tranquility  and  I
     eventually, when I moved on to walk home, skirted the yard.  

          A single  dandelion is  a nest of  a multiplicity  of small  tiny
     yellow flowers  growing bunch together on  the head of  a single stem.
     They eventually turn puffy white, the yellow completely vanishing, and
     the wind, or playing children who like to pick them  and blow on them,
     scatters  the  miniature  parachutes with  their  tiny  dangling seeds
     beneath  their snow  white canopies, to  far away  places.   Yes, most
     people  consider them  weeds  but they  are  edible and  used  in some
     recipes as food additives.

          Years ago,  my wife and  I were traveling  as I spoke  in various
     churches.  In the state of Illinois, a friend took us to meet a man he
     knew.  As we visited that afternoon, he offered us something to drink.
     It was  summer and  something  cool to  drink  sounded good.    Until,
     however, he offered us dandelion juice.  This man, God rest  his soul,
     picked  dandelions,  dumped  them  into  his  juicer,  and  drank  the
     dandelion juice raw.  My wife  and I politely said we weren't  thirsty
     but my friend  who was with us decided  he would try it.   He took one
     tiny sip and nearly  coughed up his toenails. I didn't  feel sorry for
     him either.

          Recently, the memory of  this walk home from school came  to mind
     and for more than one reason.  However, I will only mention one reason
     now.

          What I had considered a problem,  and always cut down gladly with
     the lawn mower, was really quite beautiful in number.  This backyard I
     came across as  I walked home  from school, was  literally covered  by
     dandelions;  every  square  inch.     The  greenery  I  saw  were  the
     undergrowth of the dandelion leaves because you couldn't see the grass
     of the yard for the thousands of dandelions that covered the ground.

          This is  a memory, as I suggested, but  one that often returns to
     my mind.   I have generally just  figured it was a  pleasant childhood
     memory and one  I could always enjoy.   Recently, it seemed  to have a
     reason.

          I  could  easily  spiritualize  this story,  as  a  preacher  and
     teacher, and  point out  the comparisons to  our relationship  as born
     again children of God.  The brightness of the colors, the multiplicity
     of the seeds, the changing of the yellow to white, and  the casting of
     seeds far  abroad, could easily  apply in many spiritual  and Biblical
     ways.  I wonder, however, what it means to you?

          Do you know who  you are in Christ?  Has He ever  told you?  Have
     you ever heard  his voice in  your thoughts speaking  of His love  for
     you?  Have  you ever experienced the blessing  of reproducing yourself
     spiritually?  Is your face pointed toward the Son that gives  you life
     as that of the dandelion?  Have you ever been considered worthless and
     a nuisance by others?  Have you, in turned, realized how beautiful you
     were to God; your Creator?  Did God make a mistake when He made you or
     is someone lying to you?  Have you ever been cut down  and tossed away
     as useless?  Have you ever realized  that God will not allow a bruised
     reed to be  broken or a smoking flax  to be quenched?  Who  are you as
     far as God is concerned?  Do you know?   More importantly, do you feel
     it?

     23   Being born again, not of  corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
     by the  word of God, which liveth  and abideth for ever.   24  For all
     flesh is  as grass, and all the  glory of man as the  flower of grass.
     The grass withereth, and the flower thereof  falleth away: 25  But the
     word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is  the word which by the
     gospel is preached unto you.
     1 Peter 1:23-25


     Safe Place Fellowship
     Phil Scovell
     Denver, Colorado
     Mountain Time Zone
     Phone:  303-507-5175
     WWW.SafePlaceFellowship.COM

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