The Lesson of the Dandelion

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Unlike the buttercup which is admired for its delicate yellow beauty, dandelions are usually looked upon as a detested weed that spreads and spreads and spreads...and then spreads some more until one's yard has been overtaken by this vicious yellow lion. I, for one, must admit to having a particular abhorrence for the dandelion.

This picture of three-year-old me is one of the last times I ever touched a dandelion. My parents first discovered I was an asthmatic and had severe ragweed allergies when I did what every little girl does and blew on a dandelion that had gone to seed. Needless to say, I now stay as far away from dandelions and any of their ragweed relatives that I can.

During my devotions this morning, however, I was given a much different picture of the dandelion. In her Parables of the Cross, Lilias Trotter uses the lowly weed to illustrate an important spiritual principle: the Christian's surrender to Christ.


"Dandelion" by Lilias Trotter

She writes, "This dandelion has long ago surrendered its golden petals, and has reached its crowning stage of dying -- the delicate seed-globe must break up now -- it gives and gives till it has nothing left.

"The hour of this new dying is clearly defined to the dandelion globe: it is marked by detachment. There is no sense of wrenching: it stands ready, holding up its little life, not knowing when or where or how the wind that bloweth where it listeth may carry it away. It holds itself no longer for its own keeping, only as something to be given: a breath does the rest, turning the 'readiness to will' into the 'performance.' (2 Cor. 8.11.) And to a soul that through 'deaths oft' has been brought to this point, even acts that look as if they must involve an effort, become something natural, spontaneous, full of a 'heavenly involuntariness,' so simply are they the outcome of the indwelling love of Christ.

"Shall we not ask God to convict us, as to where lies the hindrance to this self-emptying? It is not alone mere selfishness, in its ordinary sense, that prevents it; long after this has been cleansed away by the Precious Blood there may remain, unrecognized, the self-life in more subtle forms. It may co-exist with much that looks like sacrifice; there may be much of usefulness and of outward self-denial, and yet below the surface may remain a clinging to our own judgment, a confidence in our own resources, an unconscious taking of our own way, even in God's service. And these things hold down, hold in our souls, and frustrate the Spirit in His working. The latent self-life needs to be brought down into the place of death before His breath can carry us hither and thither as the wind wafts the seeds. Are we ready for this last surrender?" -- Lilias Trotter

Am I ready for this surrender? What a powerful lesson from the dandelion. Surrender should be our response to Christ and what He has given us through salvation and justification. It should be the consequence of the love that has been "shed abroad in our hearts" (Romans 5:8). It is the least we can do for our Saviour -- the One who came down to earth and died on the cross for us, the sinful, selfish beings we are. Have we taken our hands off our lives and surrendered unconditionally to Him, willing to let Him use us in whatever way He sees fit? We have not been left here on earth to do our own thing. No, we have been left here to do the Lord's will, and until we surrender ourselves to Him, we will not know what He wants us to do, just as the dandelion must "die" to itself before the wind breaks up the seed globe and blows the seeds where it wishes.

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God."

- Romans 12:1-2