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Then one day the breeze blew in a seedling. It was small and green and it took root in the shallow dirt by a blooming tulip. The tulip looked at the seedling that was just starting to grow with small green shoots jutting out of the ground. "That's odd," the tulip thought,"It's not like any of the other flowers in our garden."
"I'm a flower just like you," said the seedling slyly. So the tulip accepted the little green shoot as one of the flowers. The next week another small seedling fell to the ground on the oher side of the flower and also sprang up quickly. The tulip readily accepted the seedling as "just another flower." She had no idea of the true identity of the seedling. More of the little green sprouts began to land and grow around her friends, the other flowers in the garden. "They are just flowers," the tulip explained to the other flowers. "Pay them no mind at all. Wait till they bloom and we'll see what kind they are."
A very wise old rose some distance away knew that all the other flowers in the garden had been placed there by the Gardener's hand directly and that none of the flowers were there by chance. They had all been chosen to be there and share their soil. She tried to explain that to the other flowers, but none of them would listen. They simply allowed the shoots to grow without protest.
And grow they did -- quickly and widespread. They began to move in on the tulip's little patch of soil. As they grew, their true nature began to be revealed. These were not flowers at all, but vicious weeds which became prevalent and began to choke out the sunlight from the flowers. They even drank the water that the flowers needed to live and many of the tulip's friends began to wither way and die.
One day, however, The Gardener appeared with his shovels and his bag and began to carefully, painstakingly pull the weeds away from the beautiful, but dying flowers. Carefully so as not to disturb the flowers, one by one he pulled the weeds from their shallow ground and tossed them in his wheelbarrow to haul them away to burn.
The tulip which was almost dead from lackof sunlight and water, lifted up her head slightly and felt the gentle touch of the Gardener as he sprinkled her with water. Strength returned to her stem and she began to be lifted back to her full height again. The freshly tilled ground around her nurtured her and the sunlight bathed her.
Never again would she be fooled by a weed who said he was a flower. Never again would she be separated from the sunlight and the water that made her grow. She had learned her lesson. Never ever would she mistake a weed for something that was good and pure again. Never ever would she be fooled by deception. She had been touched by the Gardener's own hand and chosen to stand tall and strong.
