Many years ago my oldest daughter taught me a valuable lesson. We had been away from home and the lawn had grown long. After waking up in the morning, I opened the back door to see that dandelions had bloomed across the entire backyard too. As I was grumbling about the weeds and having to spend the day mowing, my daughter came out the door, saw all the dandelions and exclaimed “look at all the pretty flowers God planted for us.” It is all a matter of perspective, isn’t it?
I have told that story many times. It came back to me today when I noticed a weed coming up through one of our Japanese maples. It is Redstem Filaree. I have to admit it is pretty, but it is still a weed.
Then there are the things we plant. We have a gingko tree we planted in our back garden. Some day it may become a large beautiful tree (it is pretty now) but we are hoping it is the male of the species. If we planted a female tree, the fruit is supposed to really stink after it becomes ripe. Great…we pull a pretty little flowery plant from the garden only to plant something that may grow up and stink.
One person’s ugly weed just might be another’s beautiful flower. There is a lesson there somewhere.