Weeds Have Flowers Too
Nobody likes to lose something good in their lives-something they value, someone they love, a circumstance that makes them happy.
When we do lose one of these things we enter into a state of grieving. On top of the grief, when we believe that God was the one who took away what we loved we enter into a state of anger.
“Why did I have to lose something so good? Am I being punished? Does God hate me? Why would He take away the thing that was making me happy?”
Grief and anger become a powerful combination that can cause us to walk away from faith, to stop caring for ourselves or others, and to lose sight of hope.
We start to doubt that God is good and that He loves us. We are so distraught and hurt that we are unable to eat or function properly in normal, daily tasks. We assume that we don’t deserve good things and that our future is bleak. Our faith and our worldview are negatively affected in the long term.
But how often, if ever, do we stop to ask ourselves this:
What if what was lost was never good to begin with? What if God, in his infinite love and wisdom, removed the thing that was harming us?
It would certainly change the way we grieve if this is true.
As any good parent would take away unhealthy foods, toxic chemicals, and sharp objects from their child, so God takes away the things that threaten to hurt us and deter us from His plans for our life. [While this doesn’t apply to every loss we grieve, we are typically far too oblivious in the times that this is applicable.]
I’m embarrassed to admit this but, it wasn’t until I was out of high school that I learned that weeds sprout flowers. (Can you tell I’ve never had a green thumb? 🤭) My assumption was: if weeds were so bad then how can they sprout something so beautiful too?
But these flowers, pretty as they may be, are deceptive. They try to mask, on the surface, the ugliness and toxicity of the weeds deep roots. The roots that spread quickly, grab hold of healthy plants, and choke the life out of them.
Weeds must be uprooted if we want to protect the health and the life of surrounding nature.
The role of shepherd that Jesus plays for us can be likened to the role of a gardener. Jesus Himself likens it to a farmer in some parables. He plants the seeds for our future relationships, for our roles in ministry, and for every other plan He has for our lives. He waters those seeds by preparing us and preparing our circumstances. And one day, when the time is right, we bloom into what God has planned and prepared for us.
There are times though that the soil we are planted in becomes corrupted and/or weeds start to surround us and attach to us. It’s in these situations that God must now cleanse everything around us, or uproot us and move us to healthier soil. The deeper and stronger the weeds are attached to us, the deeper God has to dig to uproot us. The longer we’ve lived in unhealthy soil, the more time and restorative work is needed to revive us back to good health.
We can become so comfortable and attached to an unhealthy relationship that it deeply wounds us when God takes that relationship away. Despite it being for our own good, we still feel the heavy weight of grief. And though the relationship may have seemed good and beautiful (like the flowers on a weed), God sees the depths and knows how unhealthy it is for us. If left to continue, the relationship would have ended up choking us out and killing us.
God digs deeps and removes those weeds, because He protects us. He replants us and gives us the care and attention we need to recover, because He loves us. He helps us then grow and bloom, because He wants the best for us.
When we find ourselves in these toxic situations or relationships that need God’s intervention, it’s due to either our own bad choices or the fact that we live in a world with corruption. It is not God’s fault that we are where we are, and we should not hate Him when He loves us enough to save us.
We can choose to forever grieve and be angry over what we’ve lost-what we thought was good. Or we can reflect on these situations and ask God to show us how he may have been protecting us and caring for us by removing what was harmful.
You may still be wondering why God took that thing or that person from you, thinking “yeah but look at the good that was in it, it couldn’t have been that bad”. Just remember: weeds have flowers too. They’ll pull you in with their beauty, but they’ll choke the life out of you soon enough. If God has removed that weed from your life it is because it was for your own good.
-Stephanie Lauren Auman
