Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Looking for four leaf clovers

I like to look for four leaf clovers. I remember as a young child playing on the church yard that really needed mowing badly. It was full of clover. I didn't understand it at the time, but Sarah Graham, my babysitter was looking for leaf clovers. With her help, I made a nice necklace for my mother from the clover blossoms.

It seems to me that I have always liked finding for leaf clovers. I think my personal record is 89 for one afternoon. It is little known secret that four leaf clovers can be found in groups. If you find one, there are likely to be several more nearby.

Finding four leaf clovers is really what life is all about. It is fun and satisfying to look for and to find with the rare and the unusual. The mutation that is occurring in the clover plants and that creates the four leaf clover when is a reminder of God's patient power of creation. It is a joyous experience. It is relaxing. It amazes your friends. And it requires some of the best life-skills.

Here are my special hints

for finding four leaf clovers:
1. Enjoy the hunt.
2. Relax.
3. Believe that you will find one.
4. Beginning with a search in a large patch of clover, look to see if there is a four leaf clover, which stands above all of the rest.
5. When you find one big four leaf clover, before you pull it, look at the plant and see how many more you can find. Often you will find five or six hidden below the canopy.
6. Always share the four leaf clovers that you find with other people.


Do you realize that finding God takes exactly the same steps as finding a four leaf clover? When we relax and enjoy looking for his presence in the world, we become open to finding his blessings. Unless you believe that you will find a four leaf clover, you never will. Unless you believe that you can see God, you seldom will.

Our search for God is best begun through a broad overview of life itself. That's where the creator is easiest to see. Once we have realized that he is there, finding more of his work is only a matter of looking carefully. Sometimes his work is hidden under the canopy of busy activities and our world, and requires us to look carefully before it can be seen.

Most of the joy in finding God comes from sharing our discoveries with others in my humble way.

I have never believed that four leaf clovers are a sign of good luck. They are so easy to find, especially if you know how to look.

God's blessings are not a matter of luck or fate, either. His love for us reaches out even when we are not looking. But the joys that come from the search are truly beyond measure.

Go out today and find some four leaf clovers.