August Snow

There was something that delighted me when I was a girl.
To some, it was a nuisance.
To some it was a weed.
To me, it was magical.

The yellow flower just begged to be picked.
Since so many could be found, a small bouquet was formed in my hand.
I thought they were so pretty.
I quickly learned that this yellow flower was not something people wanted on their lawns.

Dandelions.
Even the name intrigued me.
How could something so brightly colored cause so much annoyance?
I never understood why days later, the yellow flowers went away.

In their place, the magic happened.
In their place a tall stem appeared with a fluffy head.
The yellow flower was gone but now I could make a wish.
I could blow the fluffy head as my wish was secretly made.

One simple blow on the stem scattered little white specks everywhere.
Sometimes, the wind would do the job for me.
Sometimes, the wind blew the white specks far away from where I was standing.
I remember being sad about that as a girl until I was told that the white specks were seeds.

Dandelions are self pollinators.
They change from flower to seed head in a matter of days.
Because they can quickly populate a widespread area, it is hard to keep up with them.
The fluffy seed head just begs to be picked and blown by a child.

As I was leaving my street the other day, I saw it.
It was the last days of August and it was snowing.
It was not snowflakes, like we are accustomed to, rather thousands of white specks.
Not a dandelion is sight, yet another plant, growing by the roadside also had fluffy heads.

With the breeze that was blowing that morning, the specks were flying every which way.
I experienced that same childhood delight.
It was as If I had held each plant in my hand and blew on the seed head.
August snow, I said aloud as I drove through the seeds flying across the road.

I knew in my heart that next year, more of these roadside plants would appear.
The breeze took care of it.
Seeds were dispersed.
Seeds were carried on the breeze to who knows where.

He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. (Mark 4: 26-28)

I thought of the Gospel as I drove through the August snow.
I thought of all those specks flying this way and that.
I thought about the seeds that stuck to my car and went with me to my destination.
I thought of seeds that would have clung to my clothes had I been walking.

God designed it that way.
Roadside plants multiply because seed scatters.
Inadvertently, my car, my clothes, a bird, an animal, or simply the breeze will carry it along.
We transport the seed often without knowing.

We are sowers of the Gospel.
We carry the Gospel with us to various places hoping that it will take root.
Our lives and our testimonies carry evidence of saving faith this way and that.
That evidence is attractive and may cause another person to ask us about it.

We then become pollinators.
We spread the seed and pray for it to take root.
The roadside plant has no say in where the seeds would be scattered.
A dandelion with its fluffy head, has no say in where those seeds will go.

What I thought was magical as a child, I now know is God.
God ordains even where the tiniest seed speck will go.
God sends the breeze that will carry the seeds away.
No white speck flies off in vain.

No Gospel seed is wasted.
God knows where the tiniest speck of His Word and His Truth will go.
God knows when and if the seed will take root.
God causes it to grow.

August snow fell as I drove down the street.
I helped to spread the seeds of that plant a bit farther along.
Delight overtook me.
I could almost feel the imaginary dandelion in my hand.

Seeds scattered.
Seeds taking root.
Gospel seeds sown.
One day ready for the Harvest.