I’ve been smitten by bluebonnets ever since moving to Texas more than 30 years ago. I carefully seeded a side garden area at our home in Houston—etching the pebble-like seeds with a knife as instructed by the package—but to no avail. It wasn’t until we moved to Austin that I had any luck. One spring I bought a dozen bluebonnet plants from a local nursery and nurtured them into our front and back yards. They bloomed gloriously. About a month later, their pods twisted out seeds upon the ground, and the cycle of bluebonnet death and resurrection took hold in our yard. Ever since, for some 25 years, we’ve had a bounty of beautiful blue blooms every spring.
Most people know me as “Pastor Tim” as I’ve worked as a pastor in Austin for a few decades, currently as the director of Austin City Lutherans. We call our organization “the other ACL,” and we serve low-income neighbors with a food pantry, a high-quality childcare center, and a move-in ministry providing furniture and household items for people exiting or at-risk of homelessness.
I have another identity, however. As some of my neighbors know, I am the “South Austin Bluebonnet Seed Robin Hood.” Each spring I spy public places that have an abundance of bluebonnets, and when they seed out in May and June, I redistribute a portion of their seeds to other locales that need a splash of spring color.
In recent years, I’ve especially focused on the Davis Lane median near our house in South Austin. For years, Davis Lane was a dead end. In 2016 it became a through-way, spruced up with a tree-lined and rock-covered median.
I started my Robin Hood actions on the median five years ago, faithfully dispersing fresh seeds upon its rocky cover. Not all Texans know, but brave little bluebonnet sprouts come up with the fall rains in October and November. Not all the little plants that sprout make it to blooming glory in March and April. It’s a tough go for the little plants as the adversity of cold and occasional snow and ice come in the winter months. When it freezes, the plants’ circular clusters of leaves (called basal rosettes) literally lay down, spreading close to the ground. But they persevere as they patiently await the warming spring sun which coaxes them to stand tall. Sun rays spill forth from the sky, and bluebonnet flower cones race upward and explode into a bounty of azure and cobalt. Have you ever experienced a spring in Texas when there were no bluebonnets? I haven’t—every year the bluebonnets faithfully do their thing. They sprout, survive, persevere, and then thrive.
I’ve seen growth and progress each year of my Davis Lane project as the plants’ coverage has spread. This spring’s blooms have been decent (the continuing drought is a mitigating factor) with five or six large pockets of bluebonnets up and down the median. The plants have naturally done their work, but I’ve continued to do the work of redistribution, sharing seeds from places abundant to this place of need.
Similarly, the work of redistribution by Austin City Lutherans’ volunteers blesses those in need. Our Bread For All Food Pantry helps feed more than 600 households (about 2,500 people) each month as we share food donated by supporters and the Central Texas Food Bank. Mariposa Family Learning Center provides high-quality childcare to a dozen families—through its tuition-subsidy model—who would otherwise have no access to such programming. And in the past three years, Austin City Lutherans’ Move-In Ministry crews have brought furniture and household items to more than 200 families and individuals. We serve people who come from varying situations: men and women living on the streets for years; women fleeing, with children, situations of domestic violence; refugees legally in the country, always with children, seeking asylum and a new start free from oppression and tyranny; and, young adults aging out of the foster care system.
The Move-In Ministry wouldn’t be able to assist these folks without our donors who have generously given their furniture and household items for redistribution: tables and chairs, living room sets, dressers, end tables and lamps, pots, pans, dishes and silverware. These basic items help give recipients a feeling of stability—“home”—in their new places.
When people have what they need—food, shelter, security—they have better opportunity to pursue purposeful living. ACL works together, in the spirit of biblical justice, toward this end utilizing the power of redistribution. This power works for flowers toward the end of beauty and wonder, and it works for people toward the end of dignity and grace.
- Pastor Tim Anderson, Director of Austin City Lutherans