(by Lorie Codispoti)
I like dandelions! I’d be fine if my whole yard was filled with them.
A few days ago I appealed to my husband to wait another week before mowing the grass because I thought the polka-dotted lawn was pretty, and I enjoyed watching the bees go from flower to flower. Given that he’s allergic to bees that probably wasn’t the best way to frame my appeal. As a result, the yellow beauties fell fate to the decapitating mission of the lawn mower blade, forcing our bees to find more socially acceptable flowers for their honey-making business?
Did you know that up until the 1800s people would pull the grass from their lawns to make room for dandelions (and other “weeds”)?
So, what happened to change their status and dethrone these crowned jewels?
Simple. Perception.
To perceive is to “receive impressions of external objects through the medium or instrumentality of the senses…” (Webster’s 1828) It’s what you interpret from your senses. I might see a lawn of maintenance-free flowers while someone else sees weeds that will choke out their grass. It’s a matter of perception.
I recently listened to a conversation between a christian and an atheist. The atheist noted that humans are “sense making beings.” He posited that our brains use our senses to observe how our world works, and asserted that because of this process no one can know truth. This might sound reasonable IF I thought that perception was the only tool in our toolbox.
Perception is important, but it is not enough.
Why? Well, for one thing our perception is limited. Compared to the heightened senses of the animal world, we’d be at a loss if this was all we had to evaluate reality.
Look at the bees. Because they were created with the ability to sense the Earth’s magnetic fields, they never get lost. Imagine that! Buzzbee’s queen always knows he’ll be home on time for dinner. Perhaps if I had the ability to sense magnetic fields I’d never have to experience the fear of getting lost (something I’m really good at).
Perception is also limited because it makes us the center from which everything is interpreted. “If I say dandelions are pretty, who are you to say otherwise?”Can you see how the atheist would come to the conclusion that we can’t know truth when you have everyone concluding something different? Without an objective approach (something that allows us to evaluate our surroundings from an outside-looking-in perspective) reality is up to individual interpretation. How confusing is that?
Thankfully, God didn’t leave us to ourselves. He created humans with an exclusive feature that no other creature possesses.
His likeness. (Gen.1:27)
We have a nature that resembles our Creator - characteristics that enable us to tap into more than what our limited perception allows.
For example: We’ve been given 1) A moral conscience. 2) The ability to think and reason in abstract ways. 3) And, like our Creator, humans have been endowed with the ability to create through invention, composition, art, etc.
With these universal tools, believers can then add the power of God’s indwelling Spirit, which gives us the ability to rightly align our perception to God’s perspective and see things the way they really are. This enables us to view things from the outside-in (objective) rather than the inside-out (subjective).
People may have thought dandelions were pretty before the 1800’s, but their value was derived from the medicinal properties God gave them. Perhaps if I’d of framed my appeal this way they’d of kept their heads.
Allowing perspective to rightly align my perceptions has another benefit.
It expands my capacity to feel empathy - for my friend who had two abortions, for the person who left their family to pursue their same-sex attraction, for the person addicted to a substance that is destroying their body, etc.
Hebrews 4:15 tells us that “We do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses…”
Jesus Christ came in the likeness of man and modeled God’s perspective to us. If we aspire to “be like Christ” then we have the capacity to love those who differ with us. With the goal of planting seeds we can challenge them to question the validity of their perceptions and consider God's perspective. It may not produce a field of dandelions, but if cultivated it will provide the medicine their soul craves.
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