I simply adore the sunshine. It fuels me. When I step outside and feel the warmth, it’s like the strongest embrace that makes everything right in the world. I can be having the worst day, but let me go outside and look toward the sun and suddenly I remember the blessing of experiencing that glow upon my face, that heat upon my skin and it reminds me that I’m alive. So, it’s no wonder my absolute favorite flower is the sunflower. Since I was a little girl, I remember having a shirt with a bright yellow sunflower and the sun beaming gently upon it. It was my best shirt as far as I was concerned and I wore it every chance I got.
Sunflowers are strong, tall, amazing happy flowers that stretch up toward their source, the sun. Their beauty far exceeds the thick bright green stems. The sunflower’s bloom is spectacular with golden yellow petal upon golden yellow petal. And that face…what a sweet happy round face that gazes upon passers by of bees and butterflies with a welcoming stop for their weary flight. So I got to thinking…why do they follow the sun? What makes them dance for their maker with such grace and brilliance?
As I researched, it turns out this is a process called heliotropism. As I learned more about this wondrous cycle, the more I realized how similar our spiritual walks are. Entertain me for a bit and Ill explain. Heliotropism suggests the sunflowers have a 24 hour clock that allows them to track the sun. In fact, at nighttime, they automatically bow their heads facing the east in expectation of the sun rising. They know their source and they know where their source will be. Every day they follow their source and every night they prepare to receive from it the next day. They take a posture of waiting and resting for the next opportunity to track with the sun. To worship the sun. To receive life from it.
Do we know our source? Do we expect our source to be there 24 hours a day? Do we take a humble posture not only expecting our source but humbling ourselves before our light that feeds us? Our Father that loves us. Our Lord that we receive from. Do we track with Him not taking our eyes off Him? Do we raise our heads and shine brightly allowing passers by to rest from their weary travels in this journey we call life?
What’s even more amazing is even if light is disrupted behind clouds or an overcast haze, the sunflower continues tracking the sun’s flight across the sky uninterrupted. Lack of actually feeling or seeing the sun does not disturb the sunflower for he knows his source lies just on the other side. He knows that the sun is consistently there and the sunflower is not dismayed. So my question to us friends is, when life’s challenges “hide” our sunshine, do we continue to keep our eyes fixed on faith? Do we allow the haze of an overcast sky to steal our hope?
Typically, young sunflowers follow the sun from east to west. The warmth attracts insects to the sunflowers to continue the life cycle that’s shared in pollination. Mature sunflowers become fixated toward the east with only their outstretched leaves continuing to track the sun. Once they form seeds and multiply, they no longer practice this and the process begins for the young sunflowers that have sprouted. This reminded me that we should keep ourselves fixated on our Maker. That we should be available to share who we are, to share our gifts with others in our life cycles and last but not least, the importance of spreading seeds so that we multiply. And finally, coming along side those we have planted seeds in so that they too can plug into their “source” and track their maker too.
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