I Want to Be a Dandelion

by Christine Cummings-Weis Signs
May '03

Dandelions--now there's a flower!
I just know the dandelion must be God's favorite flower; consider how they grow and grow and grow, no matter what people do to stop them. That's why I want to be a dandelion.

It's not that I want lawn-service billboards to call me a lawn's worst enemy. Nor do I want middle-aged accountants griping about how they spent their entire Sunday pulling me and my family up by the roots. So, why do I want to be a dandelion?

I want to be bright and sunny and colorful. I want to be cheerful--to cheer up those who are discouraged and to help those who are weak. I want to be a healer. (The dandelion's scientific name means "healer of disorders.") I want to be delicious. You have to eat at an expensive restaurant to get a salad that includes dandelion leaves, you know! Bears, groundhogs, squirrels, chipmunks, and gophers think dandelions are quite a treat. And have you ever seen a finch tear into a white, fluffy dandelion head to snarf up those tasty seeds?

Dandelions are yummy!

I want to help bees make honey and butterflies to be rainbows. I want to bring joy to children of all ages at every stage in my life. Like dandelions, which survive despite all the poisons sprayed on them, I want to bloom regardless of what others may do to me or say about me. When I'm mowed to the ground, I want to pop up immediately to be a bright spot where I am. And when I'm yanked out of my element, I want enough of me to live on to grow and bloom again. I want to keep growing no matter what, just like a dandelion. How?

"God . . .makes things grow."

God keeps everything growing--especially, it seems, the peaceful, unstoppable dandelion. He keeps me growing. I want to be a dandelion. I want to be God's dandelion in the lawn of my world.