These plants bloom across the countryside in mid-summer, then fade away without much fanfare.
We see them all the time.
Just Queen Anne’s Lace.
Or better yet…”wild carrot”.
They’re nothing fancy or exotic, really.
After all, the US Department of Agriculture has listed it as a noxious weed. Isn’t’ that nice?
But one caught my eye this evening as I pushed my stroller-bound kids down our country road.
I stopped. And looked.
It’s as though it begged me to get down, get closer, and examine it.
God does that to me sometimes.
He whispers…
Catching my attention, He woos me in to get a closer look and then rocks my world with the mundane.
{And I love it!}
I stared.
I picked.
And there it was.
Plain as day.
A single, small, red floret right in the center.
How very odd.
Was this one rare? Deformed, maybe?
Or had I simply not taken the time to notice that they were they all like this?
I walked further and examined a few more.
Sure enough…there it was. They were “normal”.
In the midst of this showy, snowy lattice of white was an unsightly, red…“thing”.
What was God thinking ruining a perfectly good flower with that?
I was tempted to pluck it off before I snapped a photo of it’s glorious detail.
But something inside me knew there was a story behind it’s unusual existence in the center of this flower.
I had to know.
{So my type-A, recovering-perfectionist self let the little bugger be}
This is what I found out:
Named after either Queen Anne of England [1665-1714] or Queen Anne of Denmark [1574-1619], both avid lace makers, the red {or purple} blossom is said to be a drop of Queen Anne’s blood on the lace, as a result of a needle prick.
The real function of the little red flower…?
Why, to attract insects, of course.
Brilliant!
Mesmerized by this delightful weed, clicking away at it from behind my rebel, the message started to penetrate.
You see, that inconspicuous little floret – the one that I’ve missed every time I’ve ever looked at Queen Anne’s Lace – is the heartbeat of that plant.
And you know…
I’m just like this showy little weed.
We all are.
We’re pretty common, really, amidst the countryside cluster of foliage.
But get this.
What sets us apart, what makes us attractive to the life buzzing around us, and the only thing that actually enables us to have an everlasting impact on the lives surrounding us…is what lies at the center of our being.
It’s that tiny little red – “blood drop” – of a blossom.
Without it we’re completely and utterly pointless.
Life stops there.
It’s true.
Without the shed blood, we’re nothing.
We cease to have influence.
We cease to have purpose.
We just cease.
But with it,
with Him,
we have everything
we will ever need
to survive and thrive.
Look for it.
It’s right there.
It’s because of that seemingly insignificant little ‘thing’ that we’re able to bloom exactly where we’re planted, despite our “noxious weed” days, and soak up the son.
And be
profoundly…
intricately…
beautiful.
