"I have got the best surprise for you! You won't believe it! Come on!"
Well, what mother can resist that? I practically threw down all the mail, dirty dishes, and accumulated detritus collecting on the kitchen counter that I had been unhappily wading through and rushed outside with my son. Peter proudly led me to this beauty--this bright yellow burst of sunshine growing right beside the path to our kitchen door. Who wouldn't love a sunflower? Did you know that sunflowers are one of honeybees' favorite flowers? In fact, I've read that if you want to help to shore up the radically declining bee population, then plant sunflowers. Every single time we walk by that sunflower, we check and, sure enough, there is always at least a bee, and often two, busily sipping away at the golden nectar.
Sunflowers have always been one of my very favorite flowers: big, bold, showy splashes of joy that always make me smile. We've never actually grown one, however. But one day Peter found an old packet of seeds sitting around the garage (no telling how old and outdated they were) and sprinkled them on the hard, dry ground outside our kitchen door... and then we promptly forgot all about it.
Of course, nothing would grow. Nothing should grow. We are not green thumb people--though my youngest son and I are certainly trying--hence the tangled mass of tomato vines and the little purple flowers (we don't remember their name but our son picked them out and, praise God, they are growing and are lovely!) Nope, no hope for that old packet of seeds. There had been no watering, no mulching, no fertilizing, no care of any kind. Just a wing and a prayer. And time.
And sometimes that's enough.
Sometimes God honors our weakest efforts and our feeblest prayers with joyous surprises.
Sometimes we hope and dream and pray and pray and pray some more... and nothing. The skies seem brass, our efforts and prayers seem futile and empty, and the way ahead seems discouraging at best. Don't we all grow weary and disheartened at times? Tired of sowing and not reaping. Tired of praying and not receiving. Tired of trying and not enjoying the rewards. Tired of hoping and not finding fulfillment of our dreams.
But God reminded me, in this hardy sunflower, that He sees and hears it all. And He takes our small, our weak, our exhausted little seeds of faith and hope and effort, and He eventually sends us a beautiful harvest of blessing. A bursting sunflower of joy.... of revival... of restoration... of renewal... of new life and new hope.
We never saw the sunflower growing. Seriously, we never saw a shoot or a flower bud or any evidence whatsoever that anything exciting was in the works! But, as God did with this unexpected gift growing seemingly overnight, He can change everything in a moment. He can part the Red Sea when the enemy is baring down. He can still the sun for 24 hours to allow the victory. He can use a pit and a prison to lead Joseph to a palace to save nations from starvation. He can send the whale in the nick of time to prevent Jonah's drowning... and then summon the whale to land to give a rebellious prophet a second chance. He can calm the sea in the midst of a storm. He can open the eyes of those born blind. He can raise the only beloved child from the dead. He can multiply the tiny bits and pieces and make a feast for the hungry thousands. He can die on a cross in my place, in your place, and take away your sin and shame. And He can rise from the dead and give us eternal, abundant, joy-filled life.
"Christ sometimes delays His help that He may try our faith and quicken our prayers. The boat may be covered with the waves, and He sleeps on; but He will wake up before it sinks. He sleeps, but He never oversleeps; and there are no 'too lates' with Him." Alexander Maclaren
Keep praying. Keep trying. Keep trusting. Know that the sunflower seed is in the ground, silently but surely, growing and, when you least expect or even hope for it, preparing to burst forth into the sunshine, drawing honeybees and grateful glances it's way.
Thank You Lord for this reminder that You are faithful... forever faithful. And You are able to do abundantly, immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine or dream by Your infinite power and Your sovereign love. (Eph.3:20-21) Thank You for the little things in our lives that bring us so much joy and help us to remember that You are always good and always giving us gifts. Father, give us one thing more, we pray: give us eyes that see and hearts that thank. Thank You for my son's sunflower. To God be the glory.
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