Think back to when you were a child. Did you ever stumble into a clover patch and find yourself looking desperately for a four-leaf clover? Do you know the kind of luck you were seeking when looking for the rare object?
Yep, here we go again with another myth and legend; the luck of the four-leaf clover.
It all began with Celtic priests in Ireland. The three-leaf shamrocks were used to tell the story of the Holy Trinity, but the four-leaf clover having that extra leaf carried a magic all it’s own. It was a Celtic charm used to for protection and to ward off bad luck.
In the Middle Ages, it was believed if you carried a four-leaf clover, you could see fairies.
Another myth claims that Eve plucked one up from the Garden of Eden, making it a symbol of paradise to some.
Even Christians have bought into the “luck” of it by adding it to the popular phrase, “faith, hope, and love”. When there is a fourth leaf it becomes, “faith, hope, love, and luck.”
Why do we put so much faith an object? Why do we want to believe our luck or success is because we have a four-leaf clover in our pocket?
I believe it’s because true faith requires believing without seeing. When we have faith in our Creator, we are trusting something we cannot see to be our life guide. Faith is one of the hardest beliefs to explain to someone.
Take my life for example. I am a writer. I am a teacher. I am a consultant. I am a speaker. My purpose is to take all those abilities and turn them into a form of empowering others.
Right now, being a teacher pays my bills, but my purpose is bigger than the classroom. I can see it. I can feel it. The vision of my future exists in front of me at all times. However, it takes a lot of little steps to get through the boulder sized hurdles to achieve fulfilling my purpose. Some days are really, really good and I can see the movement toward doing my purpose full-time. Other days, I’m dodging pieces of boulder being flung at me from unknowing directions as I continue to work toward my purpose.
It is on those hardest of days that I have to trust in my faith. It is on those hardest of days that I have to remind myself that I was created by my Creator for this specific purpose He has placed in my heart. I cannot see Him or my faith, but my heart knows what I am to do and that is where I carry my faith. My faith carries me through the roughest of moments and joyous ones as well. My faith doesn’t need the touch of a four-leaf clover. My faith is strong enough to trust in what I cannot see.
If you find yourself a little leery still and need to find the four-leaf clover just to give you a little encouragement, that’s okay. Go and do that. But, please remember, faith is already sitting inside your heart waiting for you to believe.
