Buttercups are such cheerful little flowers, bright yellow polka dots in a patch of green. When we find them along the way, we smile and point them out, “There’s a buttercup!” Perhaps it’s the memory of our childhood that makes us smile. Often as children we’d pick a buttercup, hold it under someone’s chin, and look for a yellow spot to appear. This supposedly revealed if they liked butter or not! Usually they did. (There’s a scientific reason the buttercup reflects yellow on a person’s chin, but I won’t go into that. It’s more enjoyable to remember the fun of the game.) Buttercups are one of God’s wildflowers. They seem to randomly appear. This summer there seemed to be an abundance of them. I saw several fields full of them!

Look how the wildflowers grow! –Matthew 6:28(GNT)

Daisies are another happy flower! Not as colorful as a buttercup, this simple, unassuming flower still gets our attention. They, too, remind us of our youth. Most of us have plucked the petals off a daisy saying “He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me…”, hoping for a positive outcome. Perhaps that is why the daisy is often associated with hope.

Like the buttercup, daisies are wildflowers planted by God, but we also find them in gardens and bouquets, domesticated and trimmed. I received a pretty potted daisy plant as a Mother’s Day gift this year. Flowers are often used to express ideas and feelings. For instance, we all know that a red rose means “I love you!” I discovered the daisy can symbolize many different things, one of which is hope. It also represents new life and rebirth. I am reminded of that little saying, “fresh as a daisy”. Did you know, that similar to sunflowers, daisies close up at night and open in the morning to the light of the sun? They wake up ‘fresh as a daisy’!

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told us to “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.” Some newer translations replace the word ‘consider’ with look or see, but that word ‘consider’ implies more than just seeing. It means think about what you see! I appreciate Young’s Literal Translation of this phrase. “Consider well the lilies of the field; how do they grow?”

I am reminded of a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson:

Flower in the Crannied Wall Flower in the crannied wall, I pluck you out of the crannies. I hold you here, root and all, in my hand, Little flower–but if I could understand What you are, root and all, all in all, I should know what God and man is.

The little flower that Tennyson held in his hand turned his thoughts toward God. When we think of God revealing Himself in nature we are inclined to think of the big things. Mountains and valleys, sunsets and starry skies, oceans and rivers and waterfalls. These all do reflect the mighty Creator, but God is glorified in the little things as well. That sunny speck of a buttercup and the daisy that encourages us to hope also point us to God.

Do you feel small in a world of bigger things? Do you struggle with feelings of insignificance? Do you think you are unimportant? No matter who you are or where you are, you can be useful to God!

I am content to fill a little space if God be glorified. –Susanna Wesley

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