All I Saw Was Weeds Until . . .

I must admit that I am not an admirer of dandelions. They always look pretty in a farmer’s field – far away from my own lawn. The sight of one lone dandelion – that popped up overnight on my lawn – just doesn’t belong there. So, I quickly set out with my special tool and happily remove this unwelcomed invader. I like the unspoiled look of lush green grass, but I admit, it can be a struggle to maintain that pristine look. No, I am not obsessive compulsive. Well, maybe I am a little bit. But don’t ask my wife though, I am sure she would confirm that psychological diagnosis.

In his book Star Struck, Christian astronomer Dr. David H. Bradstreet writes:

Our planet is home to some 10 to 14 million species of living things. Consider the lowly dandelion. Found on all the Earth's continents, these tenacious plants seem to flourish anywhere and everywhere (particularly where fussy gardeners wish they wouldn't). Dandelion flower heads are perfectly designed for maximum seed creation and dispersal. Each yellow, flowering head can disperse 50 to 175 seeds to the winds. One single dandelion plant can create more than two thousand seeds.

Now you know why keeping a lawn free of dandelions is such a daunting task.

G. K. Chesterton was one of the greatest intellectuals of the last century. Chesterton’s book, The Everlasting Man, played a significant role in leading C. S. Lewis to a belief in the Christian faith. The reason Chesterton’s words resonated with a skeptic like Lewis was because he too was once an atheist.

Chesterton said that he had a dark and pessimistic view of life. This of course is quite natural when you have a godless worldview. It’s hard to find much meaning in life without God. Most atheists see life as pointless.

Yet one day he was stopped in his tracks when he encountered a beautiful dandelion. He saw beauty in the darkness. This singular event led him to become a seeker of spiritual truth. Can you imagine that? Now, I am beginning to wonder if I should establish an affinity for dandelions and study them more closely after learning this. Who knows what new spiritual insights I have been missing in my haste to rid my lawn of that “dreaded”, I mean beautiful dandelion.

Over time, Chesterton recognized that Christianity did full justice to what was beautiful and literally wonderful in life, but it also explained the brokenness of a sinful world. For Chesterton, the large-scale picture of the Christian worldview answered his questions and fit perfectly with all that he knew of life and the universe to be.

It is amazing how the beauty of a simple dandelion opened the eyes of this brilliant man. It strikes me that beauty is quickly realized by the one who beholds it. We know there is something special about it because it moves us. It stirs us. We experience it deep from within.

C.S. Lewis would remind us, that beauty in this world is a sign that points you to something significant – to the real meaning of the universe. In Lewis’ work, The Weight of Glory, he shares nine sermons on the human quest for true beauty and transcendence. He delves into topics such as the longing for something greater, the idea of heaven, and the transformative power of God's glory. Lewis offers thought-provoking reflections on the ultimate purpose of human existence and the eternal rewards that await us. He challenges us to reconsider our perspectives on spirituality and our pursuit of true fulfillment.

One must ask, what do we make, then, of all things beautiful – even the dandelion – if there is no God? If we are nothing but chemicals and molecules, then Richard Dawkins’ conclusion, in The God Delusion, is not only blunt but quite nihilistic. He states, “Beauty is just a chemical reaction.” Really? Tell that to your spouse! I am sure it will not go over well.

Before becoming a Christian, C.S. Lewis agreed with Dawkins. He believed that all reality was “a meaningless dance of atoms and that any suggestion of beauty within nature was simply a subjective phosphorescence.” At this stage in his life, he believed his atheistic worldview was true, though he conceded that it offered a “grim and meaningless” view of life.

Later in his life as a Christian, he looked back on his former worldview and said this: “You can’t get much pleasure from beautiful music if you believe its beauty is ‘pure illusion’ and that the only reason you find it appealing is ‘because your nervous system is irrationally conditioned to like it."

He said you may enjoy the music but "you will be forced to feel the hopeless disharmony between your own emotions and the universe in which you think you really live."

So, if there is no God, how do we account for all the exquisite beauty all around us? Have you ever been moved by a star-lit sky, a sunset, the beauty of the ocean waves, the idyllic scene of a country landscape, maybe even a lone dandelion? And what about a view from a valley looking up at a mountain top or the view from a mountain top looking down at a beautiful valley below.

Is all this beauty a grand deception? Are we not to believe our eyes? Atheism does not appear to have a plausible explanation for the human appreciation for beauty, and therefore it concludes that all of what we see is just a mere illusion. When you don’t believe in God, you see no teleology. It is difficult to accept this conclusion, especially when we continually see beauty and design that moves us in powerful ways.

Allen Rex Sandage, the greatest observational cosmologist in the world – who has deciphered the secrets of the stars, plumbed the mysteries of quasars, revealed the age of globular clusters, pinpointed the distances of remote galaxies, and quantified the universe’s expansion through his work at the Mount Wilson and Palomar observatories--prepared to step onto the platform at a conference in Dallas.

Few scientists are as widely respected as this one-time protégé to legendary astronomer Edwin Hubble. Sandage has been showered with prestigious honors from the American Astronomical Society, the Swiss Physical Society, the Royal Astronomical Society, and the Swedish Academy of Sciences, receiving astronomy’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize. The New York Times dubbed him the "Grand Old Man of Cosmology."

As he approached the stage at this 1985 conference on science and religion, there seemed to be little doubt where he would sit. The discussion would be about the origin of the universe, and the panel would be divided among those scientists who believed in God and those who didn’t, with each viewpoint having its own side of the stage.

Many of the attendees probably knew that the ethnically Jewish Sandage had been a virtual theist even as a child. Many others undoubtedly believed that a scientist of his stature must surely be skeptical about God. As Newsweek put it, "The more deeply scientists see into the secrets of the universe, you’d expect, the more God would fade away from their hearts and minds." So Sandage’s seat among the doubters was a given.

Then the unexpected happened. Sandage set the room abuzz by turning and taking a chair among the theists. Even more shocking, during his talk he revealed that he had become a Christian at age 50.

He would later tell a reporter, "It was my science that drove me to the conclusion that the world is much more complicated than can be explained by science. It was only through the supernatural that I can understand the mystery of existence."[1]

Friends, only God can make sense out of all the beauty we see in our world. Maybe it’s time to take a second look at those dandelions this summer – they are beauty to behold. And, if you are looking for proof of God’s creative design, I can send lots of dandelions your way.

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[1] Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004.