Dandelion, the Teacher
Are you ready for a life lesson? Perhaps your thoughts have not considered your need for a life lesson. You are too busy to pay attention to what you do not know. It is certainly possible you’ve forgotten this message for life. Another possibility is that you don’t want to hear it. What if this life lesson came packaged in a common plant? A plant which is native to Europe and Asia. It arrived in America around the time the Pilgrims came in 1620. They brought it for its food and medicinal qualities. Today Americans spend millions annually to control this green and yellow flower.
We know it as the dandelion. In French, “dent de lion.”
Our life lesson is not about the love hate relationship we have with dandelions. It is about power-eternal power. It is about eternal purpose. Both are God’s.
See them in the dandelion.
If you like a green lawn without yellow accents, don’t become distracted with your personal distaste for the dandelion and miss the point. The dandelion unmistakably reveals the power and plans of God.
History records dandelions being used for medicinal purposes as long ago as 900 A.D. Persian pharmacists used it to treat human ailments. We have ever since. It is very possible that dandelion seed came to America aboard the Mayflower with the Pilgrims. Europeans used the “dent de lion” for food and medicinal purposes for centuries. Dandelions are a nutritional food source. The plant has diuretic and laxative properties and reduces the inflammation of tissue.
The dandelion is found growing in the artic and every continent to the tropics. A single flower can produce up to 100 seeds. A single plant can produce 2000 seeds each year. Since the dandelion is a perennial plant which lives between 5 and 10 years, a single dandelion plant could produce approximately 20,000 seeds. If you’ve tried to control them, you know the power of God in the dandelion.
In current American culture the dandelion is generally considered a noxious weed. Home owners spray, dig and fantasize about dandelion free lawns. But we do not have the power to eliminate it. There is no chemical strong enough. Truth no amount of spray, or digging can remove the dandelion from the earth. It’s not in the plan.
It’s time to think about why? Why does the dandelion persist in spite of massive human efforts to eliminate it? It is evidence is of power and design. No human will, no human whim, no human plan can remove the lowly dandelion.
So, you ask, what is the life lesson to be found in the dandelion? There are two. Do you make plans? Do those plans include the observance of God’s laws? Truthfully, the dandelion has been on the earth since the 3rd day of creation. Lesson one: From the beginning, God’s laws do not change. The wise human seeks to know them and live within them. Lesson two: Everything serves God’s plans. Our plans are foolishness without acknowledgement of God’s over all power.
The dandelion is a living example. There are thousands and thousands. We are reminded that God’s laws endure and everything fulfills His plans each time we see one. This brings us to another use for the dandelion-plant teacher.
