Our 3-year-old son walked up to the screen door today and whimpered softly, “Mom, why did God make thistles?”
“I’m not sure,” I replied, having often wondered myself why God made nuisances such as thistles, bats, mosquitoes, mice, and well, you get the picture.
I gathered Eli in my lap. He still upset from planting a bare foot squarely into a sprawling “sticker” in our back yard so I determined to help him find a purpose for the pain. We set out to learn more how thistles affect our environment. What we found was a lot of advertising for “wild thistle honey.”
Aha, there it was. The teachable moment I was looking for. Apparently beekeepers often place hives near patches of uncontrolled thistle plants in the fall of the year and voilà, sweet molasses-like honey abounds.
I explained to Eli how thistles are food for birds and bees and how that helps the bees produce honey. Then, to myself, I thought, “It’s interesting how something that causes a little pain can produce such sweet results. Kind’ve like life it we allow it to be so.”
Inspired Ramblings 