Good weed

I always thought of a weed as I think of termites or roaches.  They are pests. 

Not so.

It was shared with me not too long ago that a weed is really just a plant that is out of place. 

This made me reconsider for a moment the inherent goodness in a weed (or a roach for that matter).

God creates all things and in all things God calls them good.  In fact God calls all of creation Very Good in the early chapter of the book of Genesis. 

Even roaches are good.  Even weeds. 

In the Church we have a tendency to want to ascribe the labels of “good” and “bad” on things in order to help segment out our lives and actions.  We do this in an attempt to help identify who is one of the chosen ones or who is a true disciple and who is not.

Just like what I have done with plants.  There are some that are good (flowers and grass) and there are some that are bad, and weeds are the king of bad plants. 

However, it is clear that God does not operate in this way.  All things are very good, and when things look like they have gone “bad” perhaps it is not the case at all.  Perhaps all that has happened is that this good is out of place. 

For instance take the action and emotion of hate.  Many Christians work to eradicate hate from our lives and world because it is “bad”. 

However, it is clear that hate is in fact a good thing when in its proper place. 

Should we not hate slavery?  War?  Violence?  Abuse?  Exploitation? 

Perhaps it would benefit our spiritual development if we stopped viewing the world through categories of good and bad.  What would it do to our spiritual development if we were able to see the Good in ALL things while noticing when things are just out of place?