Today we caught the last sunflowers of the season. What a joyful discovery! Especially, since we’ve looked for them before – never found them, and we’ve driven by them dozens of times.
What attracts us to their glorious blooms, and fills us with joy viewing them? Perhaps their bright yellow and orange hues. Perhaps their height and masses of them in one field. More than that, observing them and shooting a few of our own pics, brought a Scripture to mind:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. ~Hebrews 12:1-2 (NLT)
Running the race of faith requires us to keep our eyes on The Son, Jesus. He endured many hardships because of the joy that awaited Him. He’s in the place of honor beside the Father looking right at us. Are we looking at Him. Sunflowers have a property called heliotropism. In the morning the buds and beginning-to-blossom flowers are facing east and they follow the sun all day long to its setting in the west. The flowers require a minimum of 6-8 hours of sunlight per day. What kind of glorious joy would we display to the world if we kept our eyes fixed on Jesus like the sunflowers do?
Each sunflower is made up of 2,000 or more seeds, each seed capable of becoming a new stalk ablaze with more sunflowers. When we shine for Jesus we plant seeds too — seeds with potential to become a fellow believer sowing more seeds. And the kingdom grows. Awesomeness brimming with the Joy of Jesus!
More fun facts about sunflowers are found at the two links below. Be sure to check them out.
A Plethora of Facts About the Radiant and Resplendent Sunflower
10 Glorious Facts About Sunflowers
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.