A Ramble About Dandelions

There was a man who had lost his job and had run out of food. There were no jobs to be found and his cupboard became empty. He prayed and asked God for just enough food for tomorrow, because he was hungry. The next day, dandelions sprung up all over his yard. The man became angry because of the dandelions ruining his lawn and so he took out his lawnmower and cut them all down. He went to bed that night hungry, not understanding why God didn't provide for him. So he prayed and asked God for food for the next day again. Again, he woke up the next morning to find his lawn, front and back, completely overgrown with dandelions. He was hungry and angry and tore through them with a vengeance. He practically yelled at God that night, "you know I don't have any way of getting any food! Please, I'm starving!" The next day, the dandelions had doubled in size and number from the previous day. No grass could be seen in the yard. His gas can for his lawnmower had run dry and he was livid with anger at God, and then became depressed because he couldn't cut them down, and didn't understand why God had cursed him with all of these dandelions, and had refused to give him any food. He went to bed angry, starving, and depressed, not bothering to pray. The next day he just sat on his porch and looked at his front yard, covered with lush green dandelion leaves and small yellow flowers. As he sat there, an older poor woman was walking by. She stopped and asked, "Oh, you have so many dandelions, may I pick some for a salad I'm going to make later?" The man asked, "A salad? These are weeds! How can you make a salad out of weeds?" To this the woman replied, "they're only weeds if you're worried about how your lawn looks. But you couldn't ask for a more nutritious vegetable!" The man looked at his lawn and realized that where he had only seen a curse, God had made a feast grow for days on end. It's true about dandelions, they are either a weed or a great source of nutrition depending on how you look at them. God answers our prayers according to what He knows we need, and what is best for us, not what we think we need. What we may think are weeds growing in our perfectly manicured life are actually the best thing for us, and sometimes it takes Him bringing us to poverty and starvation to see it.