Wishing Flowers

Wishing Flowers…Lately I have been thinking a lot about making wishes upon flowers.  When I was a young girl, I would pick dandelions that had gone into seed, make a wish and blow the seeds into the wind.  And wait and wait for my wishes to me true.  Or, maybe, I would find a patch of clover, lie in the grass and search for a lucky 4-leaf clover.  I also remember pulling the petals off of daisies one at a time.

Wishing flowers have been on my mind for about a month…ever since I saw the movie Gnomeo and Juliette.  In that movie, Juliette replies to a character who called dandelions weeds.  She says, "Those dandelions aren't weeds, they're wishes."  I have not been able to get dandelions out of my mind ever since.  Actually, I do think of dandelions often.  A few years ago, a Boy Scout leader said that God’s favorite flower was the dandelion because he made so many of them and put them in so many places.  Of course, he may have been joking (or maybe not).  But, since that movie, I think about how we work so hard to get rid of the dandelions out of our yards.  We think of them as unsightly to our beautiful lush green lawns.  And actually, it is all a matter of perspective.

If dandelions are wishes, we are killing our wishes.  If God put dandelions here to give us wishing flowers…to give us hope, then we are killing them with our weed killers.  In our desire to have the most lush and beautiful lawn in the neighborhood (as was done in the movie Gnomeo and Juliette), are becoming so arrogant that we are stripping of the joys we had as children from our own children?  Why do we want to give up such a wonderful thing as wishing flowers?  I have been thinking that if Dandelions are God’s favorite flowers, perhaps, he meant for us to make wishes on them, or to maybe go to him with our worries.  Maybe, they are prayer flowers.  Not that I think that when we pray (talk to God) we should go to him with a list of wishes, but perhaps it is a nice thought if God did put dandelions here as a reminder to talk to him, to release our burdens by blowing them away with our breath.  I still have wishes and I ache to blow them into the winds on a dandelion seeds.

I have a friend, a very good friend, who had taught me many things.  I spent many hours with this friend and during that time, this friend taught me about ruach.  In the Tanakh (The Jewish Bible), the word ruach generally means wind, breath, mind, spirit. In a living creature (nephesh chayah), the ruach is the breath, whether of animals (Gen 7:15; Psa 104:25, 29) or mankind (Isa 42:5; Ezek 37:5). God is the creator of ruach: "The ruach of God (from God) is in my nostrils" (Job 27:3). In God's hand is the ruach of all mankind (Job 12:10; Isa 42:5). In mankind, ruach further denotes the principle of life that possesses reason, will, and conscience.

So, when I think of blowing on dandelions with my breath, it is my ruach.  And the seeds are blown into the wind…God’s ruach.  It is a mixing of breath and wind (both ruach) through some form of prayer.  To me that is a beautiful thought…one worthy of keeping dandelions in my yard.

During the past few weeks, I spent time student teaching in a pre-school special needs setting.  I was immensely blessed to be with children who picked me dandelions on the playground and handed them to me with their small hands.  Every time, tears came to my eyes as I thought of their innocence and the special meaning of the dandelion to me.  I think that dandelions are children’s favorite flowers, too.  They are the perhaps one of the only flowers that adults let them pick without scolding them, so they happily pick a whole bouquet when given the opportunity and present it to someone with love.  Jesus let the children come to him.

A pre-school student of mine asked me this, “Do you think wishes really do come true?”  I told him, “Yes, I do.  I think that sometimes it just takes a really, really long time for them to come true--much longer than we want it to take.”

My student would not understand this, but I also think that sometimes when we make a wish, or pray for something, that wish is often granted or that prayer is often answered, not in the way we thought we wanted when we wished or prayed for it, but in the way that God knows is best for us.  There are often many solutions to a problem…and what we have in mind may not be what we get,  but in the end, what we get may be the answer to our prayers, a wish granted.  So, yes, I do think wishes do come true…it just takes a very long time sometimes and we have to keep our eyes open to recognize that they did come true.

I would like to have the innocence of wishing flowers…I would like to feel the ruach (Spirit of God).  I will always love a dandelion given to be by a small fisted child and I do believe wishes come true…eventually.