Sunflowers 🌻

My favourite flower and the epiphany of summer for me is the sunflower. I love the brightest of the yellow petals and to see a field full of them, instantly makes me smile. Sunflowers are not only beautiful, but are actually very clever! You might not know this but sunflowers are not called so just for their appearance, but actually for their ability to follow the sun. During the course of the day, the head tracks the journey of the sun across the sky. Wherever light is, no matter how weak, these flowers will find it. They gain energy and strength to grow and reach their full potential, blossoming from the light and warmth the sun provides. As they mature they will learn which direction to face to obtain the most light possible and then they will stand firm, permanently facing the direction that offers the greatest opportunity for growth.

Enough about the gardening and scientific aspects of sunflowers for a moment. As amazing and awe-inspiring as these facts are, I actually reflected on this imagery from a Christian perspective. Sunflowers follow the light in order to gain strength and to have the best opportunities to grow. As Christians we too should follow the Light; The Light our Saviour provides in order to gain strength from Him and His teachings.

“Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.’” 

John 8:12

If sunflowers remained stationary and waited for the sun to pass-by them, they would only receive a little amount of light and would spend considerably longer in darkness. This would mean their growth would be at a much slower rate or even stunted altogether. We can be like this at times as Christains. Sometimes we wait for God to come to us, instead of activitely seeking and following Him. I know I am guilty of this; when I look at myself I can see that I do not actively follow Jesus in my everyday. Unlike the sunflower that tracks the sun constantly during the day, I would honestly say I probably neglect my relationship with Jesus much more than I should. When you evaluate your own relationship, could you say you’re actively following the Son?

It’s not at all surprising when I’m experiencing difficulties, feeling low or struggling with sin, it’s because I’ve been living in the darkness rather than looking to the Son. You might have noticed the lack of blog posts lately; I’ll admit my bible studies have become none existent and I haven’t invested any real time into my faith, instead I’ve been caught up in outside distractions, and it’s only now as I’m writing this I can see how unhealthy my relationship with Christ is becoming. I’m not saying we need to spend hours and hours reading our bibles or praying (although that would be a really good thing), in order to be a follower of Christ; what I mean by following the light of Christ, is to gain a daily dose of Him, not so much the quantity but the quality. Spending some true focused time in prayer or reflecting on a few bible verses each day, will help us keep on track in our relationships, and we will less likely fall into ‘darkness’.

When we live in the Light of the Saviour, learning from His teachings and listening to Him in prayer our strength is renewed, our uncertainty is made clear, our weaknesses are targeted, in short we are more nutured and therefore will grow and flourish more in our faith. We become rooted in Christ which enables us to stand firm in our beliefs when we encounter opposition or hardships.

“Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”

Colossians 2:7

It’s not just ourselves that greatly benefits from investing more time in our spiritual relationship. When we are actively following Jesus, others will be able to see His light shine through us and be drawn closer to Him. We are called to be witnesses of Christ, displaying his love through our actions and words each day, to think of the needs of others and to serve Him where we can.

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” 

Matthew 5:16

All in all, this blog post has mainly been a firm reminder to myself that I need to be more proactive and should prioritise developing my faith and relationship with Christ above all else. It’s all to easy to come up with excuses and get distracted with outside things, but following Jesus should be the centre of everything; in each action or decision during the day, I should be considering how I am reflecting Jesus or seeking his wisdom and guidance. As the sunflowers look to the sun for strength and nourishment, I too should look more to the Son, to gain such things too. I challenge you to evaluate your current spiritual relationship: you may be in a good place at the moment, or like me things may have started to head into an unhealthy state. Regardless of this, we should all strive to focus daily on Christ, actively following Him in all that we do, so we can remain in His light instead of living in the darkness.

So, let’s learn from the Sunflower and remember to:

• Follow the Light the Saviour provides
• Gain strength from Him and His teachings
• Stand firm in your convictions
• Share His light with others

God Bless! 🙂 x