This morning I spent a couple hours outside in the cool of the morning weeding around the house with a gentle breeze and the awakening bird songs to keep me company (and my three dogs of course). For some reason, the dogs were fascinated by my activity and would hardly back away enough for me to get the job done.

While I was working, I found multiple weeds to be rather attractive plants. Maybe it was the soft morning light filtering through their lacy growth. Maybe it was the contentment I feel working close to the ground and listening to the nature around me that was clouding my judgement. But there were some honest-to-goodness pretty weeds. And then a thought struck me.

There is beauty even among the weeds.

I turned that thought over and over in my mind as I was examining and yanking the offending greenery from the ground in messy clumps. I added them all to the bucket by my side and watched it fill slowly with the unwanted plant life. And periodically, I would come upon another weed that caught my attention, those with intricate leaves or flowering stems. My bucket filled to overflowing with the green refuse of my garden. As I looked at it, I had another thought.

Maybe this is how God sees all of us.

To the world, this looks like a bucket of weeds – completely offensive plants that return in irritating fashion week after week despite being plucked out of the earth by their roots. Unwanted. Unbidden. Useless. Trash.

But on closer inspection, you see the fine hairs on the leaves that catch the dew in beautiful droplets. You see the lacy design of the greenery or the small flowers blooming on spindly stems. Beauty among the trash. It’s such a stark contrast – the view of the bucket of weeds overflowing with unwanted plants versus the up close view of each individual plant.

It was a reminder to me that no matter what the world sees when it looks on our outward appearance, God sees the intricate detail of our hearts and minds. And there He finds beauty. And I just loved this gentle whisper into my soul – this obvious reminder that He loves each of us individually and with great appreciation for who we are in Him.

“…for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” – Samuel 16:7 (New American Standard Bible)

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