Parking in one of my usual spots to wait for my daughter’s school bus I intended to read a book. Instead I found myself watching a bee and a butterfly dine from some flowering weeds.

Confession, I was thinking, “Why did God make flowering weeds? Why ‘waste’ such pretty blooms on a weed?” (similar questions I’ve had about mice, snakes etc…but that’s another post!)

The buzz of the bee helped my attitude shift. The daintiness of the butterfly flitting from flower to flower opened my eyes. Neither the bee nor the butterfly seemed at all concerned that the pollen they were busily collecting was from a weed flower and not a “real” flower. They seemed to be perfectly content with their meal. It occurred to me, that neither bee nor butterfly probably knew a weed flower from a regular flower anyway. Furthermore, I don’t think they would care. They need pollen. God supplied pollen. Their needs are fulfilled.

How many times does God provide for me and I turn away His provision, His gift because I see the weeds and not the flowers on the weeds? To my daughter who comes bounding off her bus and who snatches a handful of weeds for me because the white flowers with yellow centers are “pretty” it doesn’t matter. To the bee and the butterfly it doesn’t matter. Why does it matter to me?

Unlike the bee, the butterfly or my daughter I have the nerve to have a “standard” for the way God chooses to provide for my needs. Another confession, I also have a horrible habit of setting a “standard” of what God provides for my needs.

The Lord’s Prayer has us pray, “Give us this day our daily bread…” it doesn’t say “Give us this day our daily (insert type of bread here)…”   There’s no tag line with various bread type suggests – wheat, rye, pumpernickel, pita etc…

When Abraham took his son up on the mountain where he planned to follow God’s direction and sacrifice him as an offering he said to Isaac, when quizzed about the where the sacrifice was, that God himself would provide. Abraham had no idea he’d find a ram caught in the bushes, but he did. You can bet Abraham didn’t hesitate to accept God’s provision either thinking, “Why not a lamb, or an ox”?

I’m just a woman with a family and many are our daily needs. Who am I to questions or restrict or try to dictate how, when and where God supplies those needs? Who am I to turn down His provision because it doesn’t meet MY standards?!

As we pull away from the roadside the flowering weeds wave in the breeze, the bee and the butterfly have moved on to a new dining hall and the flowering weeds my daughter picked are already dying snatched from their stalks. But alive in me is the assurance God indeed does provide if only I stop looking at the packaging and see instead the blessing.