I’ve got a patch of soil in my flowerbed where I have trouble growing anything on purpose. But these beautiful Yellow Rocket flowers come up each spring before any other bits of color, so I let them stay!
Every year I see more and more flowers blooming from the seeds that were dropped two years prior. I love that they cover the bare ground with their bright, happy color.
You might be thinking to yourself, “Oh, but they’re just weeds, you silly girl!”
Well hold on there, I’m just getting started! Here’s another early spring flower you may deem a weed, but I’m quite happy to see in that same area of the flowerbed:
I accidentally captured a friend enjoying some nectar from these Shepherd’s Purse blooms!
Here’s a shot of the two growing together, with the yellow rocket in the background:
Why on earth would I be so happy to be growing weeds in my flowerbed? Well, as I’ve said often before, I’m just happy to see ANYthing blooming in the spring!!
But I’ve got another reason for feeling fortunate about these particular blooms.
This spring we will be making our third attempt at beekeeping. Last year we lost two hives, one to some sort of virus (we think). The other hive didn’t grow big enough to keep warm in the winter, and froze to death, poor girls!
So now I’m looking to next spring, hoping this hive makes it through the winter. When they venture out of the hive, these spring blooms will be even more numerous, and will welcome the honeybees over for breakfast!
Both Yellow Rocket and Shepherd’s Purse make pollinators happy, and that’s what we want. We want well-fed, healthy bees to develop into a strong hive that will survive the coming winter.
Do you feel like a weed?
You are far from it, my friend! Others may not see your true value or potential, but your Heavenly Creator knows your purpose and your worth.
The value of anything can be measured by how much someone is willing to pay for it. Applying that to yourself makes your worth immeasurable!
Jesus Christ willingly laid down his life, dying to take the eternal punishment each one of us deserves.
His death for your life. That’s a steep price to pay, but He voluntarily chose to pay it.
I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep . . . The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.
John 10:14-15, 17-18 NLT
Lift your head and know that you are deeply loved and valued. Take a few minutes today and thank God for sending his Son to give you a new, forever life that can never be destroyed.
For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:16-17
Now take a minute or two to think of someone in your life you may have been viewing as a weed — they’re just as valuable and loved by God as you are!
What can you do to change your perception and begin seeing them the way God does?
As you go about your routine this week, may the weeds you see growing by the roadside remind you of God’s love for you and for others, and may your perspective begin to change to be more like his.
Lauri Hawley 
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