Paying Attention to the Hope Around Me

This morning I was pulling weeds from my garden, annoyed at their inconvenience to my schedule and my garden.

I was thinking about the good, bad and ugly from our week. I was having a conversation with God about the good I understood and the bad I didn’t understand.

Thanking Him for both.

But at the same time I was asking for help to understand the bad and ugly.

The bad and ugly do not make sense. They suck the light out of the good just like these weeds that suck the life out of my garden.

My weeding and conversing continued.

Then my eye caught a glimpse of a grouping of tiny white flowers peeking out from underneath my almost blooming peonies.

A weed with 6 petite white petals? A weed wouldn’t be that cute.

I pulled it anyway and as I pulled, I noticed more and pulled them up too.

They had a faint sweet smell. Surely they weren’t a weed? Could they be a wildflower?

I laid them aside from the rest of the weed pile and finished my inconvenient weeding and much needed chat with My Father.

When I was done, I came inside, put the tiny flowers in a glass and googled “6 petal white wildflower”. Several images and websites came up.

I searched through the images until I found the ones that most resembled the flower with the 6 petals sitting on my table.

Guess what they’re called?

Star of Bethlehem.

The website said the wildflower symbolizes the traits of Jesus: innocence, purity, honesty, hope & forgiveness.

I don’t think flowers are spiritual but I know when I see certain flowers I’m reminded of friendship, love, thoughtfulness, beauty.

Now, when I see a weed {or wildflower} popping up in my garden, I will be reminded of hope and the conversation that I had with My Father today.

A reminder to pay attention to the hope that can be found among the inconvenience of weeds.