Invaders

The other day my husband joked with me when I made a slightly negative comment about the sea of yellow dandelions in our yard, “If they were considered flowers, you’d think they were pretty.”

Today I was doing yard work that included trying to clip out an invasive perennial plant that has grown in, around, and behind my favorite early summer perennials. I did not plant that invasive plant; it just showed up and started taking over about 12 years ago, spreading more each year. At this point in the season, it is as tall as my favorite plant, which will grow at least another foot in the next month. But my favorite is on the verge of blooming now. I want to see the flowers!

My choices to defeat the invader: fully dig out the whole garden, thereby having everything have to start over as a small plant; weed-whack in-between the “good plants,” likely whacking a couple of the good stalks in the process; treating with a kill-everything spray judiciously, (yeah right); and/or clip out the major stalks of the invader just to keep it shorter than my preferred plant.

But isn’t this plant also one of God’s plants? His Creation?

And isn’t this how we deal with people that we consider “other?” Or evil? Are they not also God’s creation?

Or shall we see the invader as sin and spin a metaphor on how we deal with sin in our midst? Or the threat of sin… How do we keep our kids away from sin and sinful things away from our kids? Do we just keep our plants/our kids in the “green house” away from everything, including God’s rain and wind? Do we whack out the offending things/people/places/entertainment and, in the process, smack the kids or the kids’ spirits as well?

Help, I need a plant prophet.