My son Liam loves to pick dandelions for his mother. To date, she hasn’t wearied of receiving them. One man’s weed is a little boy’s flower.
One day I took Liam shopping with me. As we hurried past the floral section, he pointed excitedly to an arrangement of yellow tulips. “Daddy,” he exclaimed, “you should get those dandelions for Mommy!” His advice made me laugh. It made a pretty good Facebook post on his mother’s page too. (By the way, I bought the tulips.)
Some see in weeds a reminder of Adam’s sin. By eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve brought on themselves the curse of a fallen world—relentless work, agonizing birth, and eventual death (Gen. 3:16-19).
But Liam’s youthful eyes remind me of something else. There is beauty even in weeds. The anguish of childbirth holds hope for us all. Death is ultimately defeated. The “Seed” God spoke of in Genesis 3:15 would wage war with the serpent’s offspring. That Seed is Jesus Himself, who rescued us from the curse of death (Gal. 3:16).
The world may be broken, but wonder awaits us at every turn. Even weeds remind us of the promise of redemption and a Creator who loves us.
INSIGHT
:After the fall, Adam and Eve were barred from the Garden of Eden by cherubim (angels). God then established a form of worship to teach the necessity of a Savior to regain access to His presence. Of the tabernacle and then the temple, God said, “I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim,” which were fashioned out of gold and stretched their wings over the mercy seat (Ex. 25:17-22). The reminder of God’s holiness and the need for sacrifice and mercy were central to Old Testament worship.
