In every garden, there seem to be large plants or unusual specimens that command attention. They catch the viewer’s eye and define the garden space. Then there are the other plants. Some of them may be so diminutive that they go unnoticed, except by the careful observer.

One such plant is a tiny daisy-like flower that was given to me early this year. The blooms of the brachyscome might measure only a half an inch, and there are not many of them. The color is vivid pink, but if it were tucked into one of the garden beds, no one would see it. In fact, I might not see it myself, even after tenderly planting it! This was so much of a concern that I decided to put it into a large patio container with an angelonia plant and a few white dianthus.

The plan worked. I was able to keep an eye on the sweet little gift plant, up off the ground where it could be properly seen and cared for. It didn’t get crowded out by the space hogs, but the arrangement looked good from a distance with the fluffy lavender blooms of the angelonia.

You see, this unobtrusive little brachyscome was important to me. Sure, its size was not significant; but it held a charm that the others did not have.

In my garden, all the flowers are significant, or they wouldn’t be there. Everyone in my life is important in their own way, too. I hope I do a good job of letting them know that.

“You are an insignificant person.” This was the insult hurled from one politician to another before she was escorted off the floor of the House of Representatives.

Maybe it was not meant as an insult. But it may be the worst personal attack possible to tell someone that they don’t matter. The man who was thus insulted was not as famous as the woman who raged against him. Her frustration seems to have stemmed from the fact that he had the floor, and he was saying something with which she disagreed strongly.

In other words, he could not be ignored at that given moment. Indifference is one of the most cruel ways to treat people, and implies that one is thought of as “insignificant.”

Studies have been done where college students were routinely ignored, and they subsequently developed traits normally associated with elderly people with dementia. Being treated as irrelevant and unimportant is actually damaging to one’s innermost being.

This is why it is so crucial to make our children aware of how much they mean to us. They need it for their little minds to grow, and for their hearts to dream great things.

We need to let our Christian family know that they are valued, too. The way we teach our classes must never undermine the importance of someone’s reasoning skills nor their thoughtful study of God’s word. We can value someone’s thought process without necessarily agreeing with them.

We can also make an effort to use each member in some type of work of the church. Everyone is valued by God, and he likens the collective church to a body. “Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27, NASB).

We sing “No one is a stranger here, everyone belongs.” But do we know how many silent tears may be shed during this song by those who do feel like strangers?

“For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God” (1 Peter 2:10).

You are not insignificant. No one is.

Christine (Tina) Berglund @ www.forthright.net