God Loves Me

1 John 4:7-10
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 

Flower or weed! 

Springtime walks are filled with discovery. The woods green up, and plants begin to bloom. We see the leaves unfurl on the trees and the plants blossom. Some of the plants I love to see return are Virginia blue bells, roundleaf ragwort, (a delicate yellow flower in the daisy family), and the yellow trout lily. Besides flowers, I’ve found some lovely weeds. Yes, weeds. Pink and white fringe encircle a yellow center on the fleabane bloom, and tiny white blossoms explode on the multi-stems of common hedge parsley.

On a recent walk at the park, my granddaughter tucked a fleabane bloom in her hair as she would a flower. I loved that she didn’t discriminate between the flowers and the weeds. She simply saw beauty.

Some days I feel more like a weed than a flower. A little less showy and more let me stand against the wall and stay out of the way. Regardless of how I feel, or what I do, whether I’m resting in Him or writing a thousand words, God sees the beauty in me and loves me. It doesn’t matter if my life on social media is perfect or my house is filled with dog hair and dust (most days it is), He loves me. Whether I’ve messed up or lived through a day without a noticeable mistake, I am God’s child.

If you’re feeling more like a weed than a flower, there’s hope. Jesus lived in this world to make a difference, to reconcile us with the Father, and to pour love over every one of us. He sees the beauty in you.