One of my favorite childhood memories is frolicking in the open field just down the dirt road from our rural yard on sunny summer mornings. The field was like a fairyland to me, filled with hundreds of vibrant yellow buttercups that were oh-so beautiful when gathered into a bouquet and delivered to my delighted mama as a fistful of love.
While she carefully slid their clumsily child-broken stems into a crystal flower vase, Mama always made a wonderful fuss over my sweetness that matched that of the ‘wildflowers’ I brought her, motivating me to gather another bundle the next day.
Ah, beloved memories surrounded those faithful buttercups. They were a precious part of my childhood.
And then one day I discovered that buttercups (and their magical, wish-granting cousins, the dandelions) were considered mere weeds by the rest of the world. Weeds! People actually mowed them down and considered them a nuisance to well-manicured lawns.
I was flabbergasted! What were they thinking? What loveliness and awe they were missing!
Even now, whenever I see buttercups as an adult, I get a warm, fuzzy feeling inside and can’t help but smile at the blessing they bring me. Does it really matter whether they’re called weeds or flowers if they’re a blessing to you?
As a grown-up, I’ve learned that monikers can be incendiary if weaponized. Aren’t we seeing that play out in our current society and political arenas? People are emphatically more complex than fauna, yet we tend to mentally sort them into simplistic categories and render judgment on their worth based on whether — in our opinion — they’re weeds or flowers.
But to our Omnipotent Creator, each and every one of us is a unique flower of immeasurable value, whether we’re in a tended garden or a wild unkempt landscape. None are worthless. All are beautiful in His eyes. And thankfully, He still pops up happy buttercups to spread beauty in unexpected places!
“Look how the wildflowers grow. … God gives such beauty to everything that grows in the fields,” (Matthew 6:28, 30 CEV).