Dandelions




Last night before I went to sleep I was spending time with the Lord. Typically my nighttime devotions are spent going over my day with the Lord.  However, last night I felt led to spend the time in praise. As I lay there praising Him I was struck by how small and even inadequate my praises seemed. I wondered if I should get up and stand or maybe fall to my knees. Was laying there praising Him enough? Tears rolled down my cheeks as I offered words or praise. I, a mere human, was talking to Almighty God. I confessed how inadequate I felt to Him. What words are even close to enough to praise the One who spoke the world into existence? How can you articulate how awestruck you are by the One who parted the Red Sea? Thank you is such a small offering to the One who left Heaven to come to earth to pay the highest price for my sin.

Being a person who loves words, I lay there composing praise to the best of my ability. I praised Him with psalms of my own making. As I did this, I thought of David. “The Man After God’s Own Heart” poured his heart out to his God in the Psalms. My mini psalms seemed amateurish in comparison. Then I wondered if I was accidentally plagiarizing David? As a writer, I certainly know plagiarizing isn’t a good thing. How much worse would it be to plagiarize the Bible?

I drifted off to sleep offering praises to God. This morning I awoke and headed to the Psalms. Still thinking about my offerings of praise from the night before I found myself feeling almost apologetic for how inadequate they were. My thoughts were interrupted by another unexpected image in my mind. In my mind’s eye I saw a scraggly dandelion in a jelly jar glass. As I write this, it’s December so there aren’t any dandelions on my counter. Needless to say, this thought took me by surprise. I paused and pondered the scraggly little dandelion in the jelly jar and the Lord spoke to my heart. I pictured my children, clutching a bouquet of dandelions in their tiny hands, their faces beaming with love and excitement as they offered me their gift in love. My heart overflowed as in my mind I recalled the many times I accepted their gift, hugging them tightly and feeling as if my heart might burst from love. Tears rolled down my cheeks as the Lord spoke to my heart and assured me that my “dandelions” were precious to Him.

What could I do at that moment? I simply raised my hands and extended more dandelions to Him.

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