What is a weed? 

Weed. The general name of any plant that is useless or noxious. The word therefore has no definite application to any particular plant or species of plants; but whatever plants grow among corn, grass, or in hedges, and which are either of no use to man or injurious to crops are denominated weeds. (American Dictionary of the English Language. Noah Webster 1828)

I guess weeds are on my mind this time of year. It seems no matter how diligent I might be, they are everywhere. Chickweed is my biggest foe. I pull and spray and burn. To no avail. It’s here to stay.

I’ve written about weeds before… How we must be diligent to keep our gardens clean and especially the garden of our heart. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about what a weed actually is.

I belong to an online native plant group. Some of what I would define as a weed, they define as a native desirable plant. Some things I enjoy in my garden they define as “non native” and “invasive”. So what defines a “weed”?

Maybe a “weed” is a plant that is growing where the gardener never intended for it to grow.

We have a huge southern magnolia in our front yard. After 40 years or more there are small magnolias coming up everywhere. Some are right against a huge oak tree. Will it thrive there? I can’t say for sure. But this gardener didn’t plant it there. And no matter how much I love a magnolia, it is not where it should be.

Oh and violets! I dearly LOVE them. Yet no matter how often I dig them up out of the lawn, they continue to grow their very best in the middle of a grassy lawn. This isn’t where I intended them to grow…I am the gardener. ( I must admit I haven’t the heart to destroy them.)

And crepe myrtles! For goodness sake! They come up everywhere and never where I’d like them to. They come up in the middle of a flower bed or in the middle of a bush. They are beautiful…but this is a nuisance.

I can’t say for certain, but maybe we can be like those wonderful plants that place themselves where they shouldn’t and then like a common weed need to be moved or destroyed. We decide that the beauty God placed in us for a particular purpose isn’t where/what we want for our life. We set about doing a wonderful work for His kingdom…but it was never what He asked us to do. What He intended for us was so much more.

I think it’s a little sad. I don’t want to be a “kingdom weed”… Living and working where our Abba God never intended. My heart’s desire is for all of us to live and thrive, planted where He plants us.