As we come upon the ‘ber months as everyone seems to be calling them these days, the year is beginning to feel old. I don’t know what this year has been for you, but I know God is with you.
I know you can trust Him with your heart. I know you needn’t try to make the year different than whatever it was or run around trying to force it to be something grand before the days turn into 2026.
So, let’s talk about it.
You know well my love for sunflowers. Such glorious celebratory blooms in the hot days of summer. They start so small and then those stalks grow thick and tall. The petals burst, the heart of the sunflowers turn toward the light, the bees hum the summer evenings away.
But these days, in my garden, the sunflowers are drooping. They’ve largely lost their vibrancy. The stalks grow brittle, the leaves hang, blackened, ripped, tired. And yet, from the heart of those sunflowers, those dying things, I harvest abundant seeds and store in jars for another spring.
The sunflower doesn’t try to go back in time, doesn’t try to get small again so it can bloom just so. It storms onto the scene with gusto, leans into the light, and then bows out, but leaves in its wake tiny seeds—the harbingers of another spring and the hope of another June.
So it is here I remind you the Lord is with you for however this year is turning out and you don’t have to turn away from its reality or turn back time to change it.
Like the sunflower you can give up the bloom and store up your hope like seeds and trust the Lord with your life, resting in His sovereignty, confident He will bring you through every season and to another bloom.
All in His time.
There is no need for you to bend this way and that, to force yourself into a season which you are not in. Let the sunflower teach you the freedom of blooming, being, and bowing out with hope stored up and no fear of looking a mess in autumn while winter looms in the distance.
Just as this season of withering bloom is full of purpose so are our years whether or not they turn out the way we thought or even prayed for.
The Lord is with us. And there is abundance yet.
My dead sunflowers become another spring, another June, even when they will never be just like themselves again.
P.s. – The other day my son said, “Those sunflowers don’t look very happy.” Which led to a short conversation about seasons, flowers fading as they’ve finished their labor, and the necessity of winter. To which he replied, “I will miss the sunflowers.”
And of course, there’s a lesson in that, too.
I agree; I will miss the sunflowers and even with all our hope and the knowledge of the Lord’s wisdom and goodness in every season, we can still be sad for what we leave behind, for what isn’t anymore, for what didn’t happen, or ceased to be. God can certainly handle our emotions. Our humanity is safe in His hands. The Lord is kind. His lovingkindness endures forever. I will miss the sunflowers too!
read more:
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