Dear friends,
I noticed the dandelions for the first time today! I know they’re supposed to be this miserable weed, but they are some of my favorite wildflowers (and this time of year, when they’re still tender and just-grown, they make an amazing salad with the right dressing…)
There’s something about the bright, irrepressible nature of dandelions that delights me. They are bountiful, spreading explosively, their bright yellow flowers and then their soft fluff balls both supremely delicate and also utterly unbreakable-- have you ever tried to rid a yard of dandelions? I have. I failed.
I think the way I feel about dandelions is how Jesus felt about another soft, yellow-flowered, edible weed; the mustard plant. Only, mustard plants are like dandelions that can grow to be head-high bushes! But like dandelion, mustard was, and still is in many places, a weed that was occasionally cultivated to be eaten but which mostly spread itself wild, taking over cultivated fields and thorny ditches alike.
The Kingdom of Heaven spreads like mustard seed (Mark 4:30-32; Matthew 13:31-32, Luke 13:18-19). It’s like a dandelion fluff ball -- one puff of wind, of Spirit, and it’s spreading and taking root all willy-nilly, and no amount of effort can stamp it out.
I see wild clumps of the Kingdom sprouting up all over the place. In the middle of the saddest news story, I’ll see evidence that indeed every heart on earth has a preference for, an inclination towards, Christ’s way of loving peace-- even if some hearts have been hardened against Christianity. We are part of something that cannot be eradicated, Good News that will always be welcome.
May the fragile, unstoppable, and totally irrepressible nature of the dandelion be a reminder this Easter season of our victory in Christ.
Grace and peace,
Andrew