A Dandelion Growing in Good Soil
I reached down and pulled from my garden something which grows abundantly in Cincinnati: a dandelion. This pesky little plant – flower to some, weed to most – is difficult to control. It has a long and slender root which grows down into the ground as deep as two feet. If just a fragment of its root is left in the ground, the plant will continue to grow. To my surprise and delight, I was able to pull this dandelion from the ground with little effort, a long root trailing behind. The place in which it decided to grow was the loose rich soil of the garden. In this soil, its root could not hold.
CONSIDER how weeds grow in all types of soil. Pulling them from dry and hard soil is almost impossible, but from rich and loose soil they come with ease. It is not the weeds, it is the soil.
No one is immune to trouble and temptations. They are not the problem! The problem is the kind of life in which we permit them to grow. Troubles run deep and temptations hold fast in a life which is hard and dry. Weeds may come, and come they will into the life rich with God, but with the help of the Master’s hand they are pulled out with the same ease and certainty as that dandelion growing in my garden.
May our lives be a place where the weeds of the world cannot grow, but a place where the beautiful things of God’s world can.
Rev. Wendell Mettey
Revised 8/2/2014
