Dandelions Show Up — Dutilh Church

By Carlen Blackstone

This is the third year of sharing a blog about dandelions after Easter with the hope of sharing how Christ brings new insights into daily lives all of the time. In case, you aren’t well-informed yet, I have shared with the Dutilh family the reasons why Dandelions are in fact the true Easter flower and should have their rightful place among all of the other beautiful Easter lilies, tulips, and daffodils that adorn the front of our sanctuaries on Easter morning. I need to always give proper credit to Jack Sheehan, a member of Salem UMC in Wexford, who has been placing one on the altar and sharing a unique spin on this for at least 45 years.

The bottom line is that dandelions are a true symbol for Resurrection because nothing you can do will ever kill a dandelion.

However, having Easter in March has, over the years, created a challenge for Jack to find something to bring on Easter Sunday since nothing but a naturally growing plant would do. One year, he shared that he drove to visit his daughter in Northern VA just to find a slightly warmer temperature than western PA. One year, none could be found until arriving that Easter morning to one right outside the entrance to the church. The first year that I shared a Children’s Time on the Dandelion at Dutilh, Clyde and Sherry Cameron provided a beautifully potted plant that looked beautiful for the 9:30 service, but had stopped blooming by 11:00 because of being indoors.

My dad loves daffodils and has planted many of them on the properties that we own on either side of Rochester Road. In fact, there are so many that picking and sharing them has become my annual tradition since moving back from eastern PA. This morning Carolyn Parker called and asked if she could come and take a few pictures of them. My reminding her that it was a pretty cloudy day didn’t dissuade her and as we walked together along the water-soaked lane, she admired each and every plant in its special location. Carolyn and I are both retired teachers, but she taught art while I taught math and computer science. Needless to say, we experience life differently and our friendship reminds me of how much we need to see things from others’ perspectives. As we walked, as if on schedule, the sun peeped out from behind the clouds just enough to see the brilliant yellow that needed the light to reveal its true beauty.

Most significantly, to our surprise, at the end of our walk we saw some dandelions that weren’t there when we had started just 30 minutes beforehand. They weren’t numerous, but had bloomed amidst the rocks on the path where only dandelions thrive. So then I got it!!! Pastor Tom’s messages by the redeemed thief on the cross on Good Friday and the Prodigal Son on Easter morning were about living in the midst of rocky times when life doesn’t go the way we want it to. The clouds, the temperature, the soil, and the time of year aren’t conducive to abundant life, but dandelions remind us that resurrection is!!! You can contemplate what else prevents us from experiencing life as God intends it, but when we proclaim that “Christ is risen; He is risen indeed,” we affirm that it is not the environment that creates beauty, but the Son - in unexpected places, in unexpected ways, and in spite of all obstacles.

My mom’s favorite hymn was “Every Morning is Easter Morning” by Avery and Marsh whose chorus and 2nd verse are:

Chorus
Ev'ry morning is Easter morning from now on.
Ev'ry day's resurrection day, the past is over and gone.

Verse 2
Daily news is so bad; it seems the Good News seldom gets heard.
Get it straight from the Easter people. God's in charge spread the word.

It was, I thought, very fitting that this serendipitous experience happened the day after Easter.

This year, look for dandelions to remind us of how God speaks to us every day because Easter Sunday isn’t an annual celebration, but a daily reality that makes life worth living.