Following the Son

One of my other favorite flowers has always been the Sunflower.  They are also a bright and cheery flower.  As a kid I would marvel at how tall the plant grew and how large that one crowing flower was.  I would also marvel at how the flower followed the sun across the sky.  It was amazing to see a plant move that much!  I almost felt like I could see it actually moving, turning and twisting to face the sun.  And oh how their color matched the sun they followed.  It was almost like a reflection of the thing they looked up at and followed without fail.  In my mind there is quite a love affair going on between sunflowers and the sun.  Sunflowers spend their entire day gazing up at the sun, soaking in its warmth, gaining nourishment from its rays.  The more time in the sun the bigger and stronger they grow, and the sunnier they get.  Of course there are the overcast days with rain.  Sunflowers seem a little droopy to me on those days.  They don't lose their sunnier yellow, but their heads hang a little bit.  They seem a little lost not being able to see the sun and follow its path.  They try their best to look to where the sun is, but some days it is so dark and gloomy and rainy that they just drop their heads, almost tucking their chins against the weather.  The raindrops dripping off of them almost look like tears, crying for the missing sun.  What they don't know (for they are only flowers you know) is that their beloved sun is still there behind the clouds and the icky weather.  The sun is still shining, they just can't see it right now.  Right now they are getting the other nourishment they need, rain.  The sunflower, as much as it loves the sun needs the rainy days to grow properly.  This is not unlike us and our walk with God.  We feel the best, the sunniest so to say, when we feel like God is near and we can see his face.  Yet in every life there are times of clouds and rain that seem to obscure us from God.  And for some of us we have had violent thunderstorms, tornadoes  or even hurricanes that seem to completely devastate life as we know it.  We wonder where God was in it all?  Where was he when the clouds rolled, the rain fell, when lightening struck, and even when our worlds were turned upside down.  The good news, he was there above it all, just like the sun is always there about the clouds.  The clouds only obscure it, and Him, for the duration of the storm...and when it has run its course, when it has given the nourishment it has, or taught us lessons we needed to learn, the clouds part and we can bask in the light of the Son once again.

So if you are in a time of sweet basking in the sunshine, or in a moment of clouds and rain, rest assured there is one constant the sun.  Every time you see a sunflower may it remind you that the Son is always there...and may you embrace the principle of the sunflower, always follow the Son!