Sun Flowers and Son Followers

The black edge of night gave way to dark blue as I drove south on a rural road in Nebraska. Having driven through the night, I welcomed the faintest glimmer of sunshine that soon would spread across my path and force night’s retreat.

A rightward glance revealed the uniformity of a row crop standing perpendicular to the narrow blacktop. Mile after mile, hundreds, no, surely thousands of these figures loomed as shadowy silhouettes against the darkness that skulked westward. They looked like beleaguered soldiers mustered for morning inspection by the glowing general advancing from the East.

Moments later, that bright and morning star shone across a vast army of sunflowers mustered on both sides of the road. Who could count them all? Their ranks stood attentive to the sun as the seed bearers strobed past my window and gentle hills rolled under their feet.

Alone on the backroad, I slowed to an idle to imbibe the experience. The left scene was mostly green. But the right was bright with brilliant heads of sunflowers — throngs of glowing golden faces that once gazed at the ground and had turned into sunward stares. I marveled at the plants’ ability to track with the sun as it rose slowly and slid inevitably across the bright sky.

Until harvest time, this is the consistent daily ritual of sunflowers.

As Son Followers, we often must endure darkness while firmly planted in the nourishing confidence of coming Light. This will be our routine for the Lord — until harvest time.

Mark 4:8, “And [some seed] fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some a hundred” (KJV).

PRAYER

Whether the sun sets or rises, help me to stay rooted through obedience in the truths of your word, Lord, and to remain planted faithfully in following your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.