Weeds or Wildflowers

by Dave Gillogly

What’s the difference between a wildflower and a weed? I’ve seen mountain meadows resplendent with acres of bright yellow blossoms set off by equally bright green foliage—scenes that immediately caused me to reach for my camera to capture them. These wildflowers are sometimes called hawkweed, or if bright orange instead of yellow, then orange agoseris. Sometimes the stems reach two feet in height. The pictures below show the most common bloom and the intricate pattern of their seed plumes after the blooms are gone. 

Often the seed plumes are nearly the size of baseballs. Beautiful wildflowers in all stages of their annual cycle, and they all deserve to be captured on film. (Film? What’s that? Sorry, I’m old.)

In your yard, these are not called mountain dandelions, agoseris or hawkweed, nor are they called wildflowers. They are just dandelions, almost a synonym for ‘weed’ and fit only for extermination.

There is no difference in the plant, only the location, only the label and only our reaction to the label.

We live in a world of labels. Read the following labels slowly, one at a time, and observe your mind and body as you think on each one:  skater, hater, conservative, liberal, Jesus freak, humanist, denier, bum, street person. Do you notice how you react emotionally and even physically to the use of some labels?

We’re all guilty at times of adding labels to people we don’t even know or making assumptions about them based on a label they’ve been given or a stereotype in which they seem to remind us.

How often do we make assumptions or reach conclusions about people from a distance (conclude they are weeds)? We subsequently ignore them or shun them when we might find, up close, beneath the label or stereotype, that there is an exquisite human being (a wildflower) waiting to be discovered and known. The Bible reminds us that we don’t even know ourselves, let alone other people. Who are we that we should determine that we or our neighbors are merely ‘weeds’ and not beautiful wildflowers created by an infinitely loving and creative God. 

Around our cabin in Montana, there are beautiful white flowers with yellow centers…ox-eye daisies. The lady who built our cabin nearly fifty years ago and who lived there year-round for thirteen years, told us it had taken her five years to get them growing. About fifteen years ago, because ox-eyes are not native plants and tend to crowd out other native grasses and flower species (much like our red cedars here in Oklahoma), the state designated them ‘noxious weeds’ and provided free weed killer to anyone who had ox-eyes on their property. Overnight they changed from a beautiful flower to a ‘noxious weed.’

Seeing what a mess we had made of Eden, what if God had determined that humans were ‘noxious weeds,’ hopelessly fit only for eradication?

Instead he chose, and chooses, to see us as ‘wildflowers,’ crafted (as Pastor Rick so aptly puts it in our Sunday morning sermon series) with infinite creativity, loving care and unfathomable complexity.   

Jesus admonishes us to see ourselves and one another as He sees us. Not seeing weeds or labels, but looking deeper and more closely and seeing wildflowers, beautiful creations of a loving God, in need only of redemption, acceptance and understanding.

Abraham Lincoln said, “God must have loved common people, he made so many of them.” 

May I paraphrase?

“God must have loved weeds, He made so many of us.” 

Author Bio
The author used to be Dave Gillogly. Now if he’s downtown or at a meeting somewhere, he’s “Oh, you’re Erin’s dad.” Around Council Road, he is “Miss Millie’s husband.” A member of Council Road for 42 years, he has taught Bible Study classes, directed departments, was a deacon, and served on a number of committees. He also served on the boards of the Oklahoma Baptist Foundation and Oklahoma Baptist Homes for Children. Currently some young guys are willing to hang out with him (they call it mentoring; he’s the one who is learning), he writes a little, and with Miss Millie, spends three months a year communing with God’s creatures (especially trout) in Montana next to Yellowstone Park. In previous lives, he served on Governor David Boren’s staff, was Commissioner (CEO) of the Oklahoma State Workers’ Compensation Insurance Fund, managed two independent oil companies, served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Express Employment Professionals, and was adjunct professor in the Paul Dickinson College of Business at Oklahoma Baptist University.  

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