Needle in a Haystack Part 4
June 26, 2026
Needle in a Haystack Part 4
Life has taught me that those who can find a four-leaf clover seem to have an inborn gift. In the middle of thousands of ordinary clovers, their eyes somehow settle upon the rare one. What does this mean?
As a child, I spent countless hours sitting cross-legged in thick patches of clover, searching and searching, never finding one. Yet a little friend of mine could always spot them with ease. I admired that mysterious talent while I contented myself with weaving bracelets and necklaces from the clover stems and flowers.
Years later, when our son Ben was around age 5 or 6, he discovered four-leaf clovers—and he found them everywhere. Lark would laminate his treasures and place them on the refrigerator like sacred relics. As Ben grew older, finding a four-leaf clover was no longer luck for him; it was simply something he could do whenever he wished.
Over the years, I met a few others who shared this strange gift. Rare souls whose eyes could see what most of us overlooked. Quietly, I envied them. I hoped that, if I searched hard enough, I, too, would one day learn their secret.
So when Ben was about nine years old, I asked him to teach me. As I reflect on that time here on my back porch, I am actually looking at the very patch of clover in our backyard where my son became my teacher. He said he would try to teach me. So, we sat side by side in the grass while Ben slowly scanned the clover, gently brushing his fingers across the leaves. Then suddenly he saw it—a four-leaf clover hidden in plain sight. He plucked it and placed it in my hand.
“What is the secret, Ben?” I asked. “How do you see the one with four leaves?” He paused for a moment, as though he had never considered it before. Then, in the simple wisdom of a child, he answered: “Daddy, I do not know how other people find four-leaf clovers, but I look for the clovers that seem a little twisted… or the ones that bunch up differently or the ones with bends in their stems. … the ones that look odd.” If they are not the four-leaf clover, they lead me to one.” We used his technique to find a four-leaf clover together that day.
Why do we seek the four-leaf clover?
The four-leaf clover becomes precious because it does not match the others. Its irregularity is what makes it rare and leads people to it who are supposed to see it. There is something special about the r, the few of a kind— the hidden treasure.
The same is true in the spiritual life. What makes us sacred is not merely our gifts, our strengths, or our beauty. Often, it is our peculiarities, our wounds, our imperfections, even the places where we feel different or flawed, that become the mark of our uniqueness, or lead us to what we could never have seen without them. God handpicks us for certain things because of our own unique struggles and even our failures.
So, as my spiritual teacher that day, Ben may not have consciously known it, but he taught me that the soul’s beauty is often hidden in the very places that seem a little twisted and odd. My son would teach me much more as life went along and I am just now realizing many of these.
I still cannot find a four-leaf clover, though I continue to look. But I remember the greater lesson Ben taught me, and that is the best gift of all.
Spiritual Practice and Inquiry
Answer this: How might you spiritually be a four-leaf clover?
Prayer
Dear God, Those memories take me back to a time and place that can never be lived again. But the memories still nurture me and give priceless meaning. Thank you for the needle in the haystack, my Ben. Amen
