Ultimate Networking

We just returned from two weeks of business trips and family responsibilities.  When we left, the landscape was muddied in shades of dull brown and grey.  And when we came home, we emerged into The Wizard of Oz when the film is transformed from black and white into a burst of color (which was an incredible use of technology in 1939).  What appeared dead and dying has been resurrected before our eyes.  The trees stand green against a sky-blue ocean of sky, bushes and small trees have blossomed into a seasonal wardrobe of pastels, and our grass is jumping out of the ground.

And in the vacant lot next door, I discovered an idyllic field of yellow flowers as if Monet had captured its beauty on an enormous canvas.

The pastoral vista was awesome to behold...until reality kicked in.  These are not innocent daffodils, welcoming springtime.  A closer inspection reveals a barbaric invasion in the making.  These innocent bursts of color are dandelions -- literally in the French "teeth of the lion."  Each and every bloom is about to explode with thousands of seeds on tiny parachutes, destined for our yard.  And once established, its long tap root grips the dirt like the jaws of a wild beast.  You might be able to pull off what is visible, but the root remains deep and grows even more resilient.

I admire the tenacity of the dandelion.  Where the seeds land, plants emerge, even in the most impossible situations.  The smallest crack in solid concrete is enough.  And from that seed, a whole new community arises.

Dandelions do not spread secretly under the ground, but impact their sphere of influence by casting seedlings forth all around them.   Extroverted in their inherent design, they don't seek to reproduce one plant at a time, but throw a party.

"Take root downward
  and bear fruit upward."

                Isaiah 37.31
                2 Kings 19.30

Wherever those seedlings go, they fulfill their ministry by doing the same without fanfare, spreading, bearing, and sending down immovable roots.

These are weeds.  And what if this growth was for good?

Every act of love, grace and kindness, every expression of beauty, truth and restoration spreads to a hundred generations and sends down the roots of God's kingdom, reveals His Presence, and builds community.  It is always a delight to me, wherever God has moved us, wherever He has placed us, where we least expected or even desired to go, we have discovered God's network, tenacious and loving people planted before us, sometimes invisibly until spring.

And I am reminded that it is not what I bear, but what God bears through me.  His Word takes root and spreads out in ways I will never realize until the other side of life.  It is only for me to be faithful in whatever impossible place I may be.

The seed is the word of God.
   
                      Luke 8.11

(the foundation of all we are
     and of our vision)