Along my back fence, near my green mini-Dumpster, a different-looking weed appeared a few weeks ago. My BFF Pat — the plant whisperer — told me it was a mum.
“What should I do with it?” I asked, hoping she wouldn’t suggest anything too difficult or horticultural.
“Leave it alone,” said she, “maybe it will bloom.”
And as you see, it has.
But all this is a mystery to me. How did it get there – out of its comfort zone? Did a friendly bird give it transportation, taking it places it would never think to go?
Did it crawl under the fence from the neighbor’s lovely yard of well-tended flowers? Why would it do that? Unless it mistakenly thought the grass was greener on my side of the fence.
Surely this is a little allegory. Sometimes in life we find ourselves, through no fault of our own, in unfamiliar surroundings. While we would not have chosen to be there, we must make the best of it and “bloom where we’re planted.” If we’re able to do that, we can do what God meant for us to do and bring some beauty into the world.
Sometimes we deliberately look for greener pastures. There is actually a diagnosis called GIGS, Grass Is Greener Syndrome, for those who are never quite happy with our present situation. We feel we need to relocate. But when we do, often we find things are not as good as we hoped.
We look for greener pastures and find a trash heap. But when we allow it, God can still enable us to be the best we can be.
I believe this and I have left the mum where it is to remind me.
One morning, after a really bad night, Ebenezer Scrooge said, “I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year through.”