Picking Dandelions



photo by C.Castle

When my daughter was young, I often had scads of dandelion bouquets on the table. We didn’t use weed killer, since I didn’t want to expose my daughter to the chemicals, and our lawn was a canvas of yellow polka dots on a green background. Day after day, she would come into the house after playtime, clutching as many dandelions as her little hands could hold. I took them with a smile, put them in a vase, and proudly displayed them. I encouraged her to pick those bright yellow flowers from our lawn whenever she saw them.

Yes, I enjoyed seeing her face beam as she handed me her gift.

No, I never told her they were really weeds.

And yes, I did feel a bit guilty encouraging her to clean the yard of blooms. After, all, no yellow dandelions dotting the grass meant a yard that at least looked weed-free. And if by some miracle she managed to pick a billion dandelions before they went to seed, I might actually have a weed-free lawn.

Or maybe not.

I knew there was no way my little weed picker would ever be able to rid the lawn of dandelions. Yet I kept encouraging her to pick those flowers.

Are you saying, “Oh, you bad mommy!” yet?

Before you do, consider this: The way I used my unsuspecting daughter to weed the lawn, is often the way we weed our lives. We pluck the tops off of our sins, effectively hiding them from the world and fooling ourselves into thinking we’re cleaning up our life. And all the while, the weed roots just grow deeper because we haven’t taken the time to root out the bad stuff that lies below ground.

Luke 12:22 says “There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.”

We can keep plucking the heads of our sins so they aren’t visible to the world, but the Lord can still see them all. So, which will you choose?  A vase full of dandelions with the potential for even more deeply rooted ones to grow? Or would you rather dig out as many as you can from the stubborn soil? The latter is the more effective, and more long lasting, way to have a clean lawn … and a clean heart.