Sun Benders

My wife, Angie, loves sunflowers. Maybe it was our road trip across South Dakota several years ago, where she and I saw miles and miles of fields filled with the biggest sunflowers you can imagine. Maybe it is her love for the simple taste of a sunflower seed. Regardless, she planted a few of these interesting plants in our back yard this Spring.

Well, last week I wandered out into the back yard with her to check on the progress of her new venture. The sunflowers are coming along nicely. And, it was there that she showed me something I never knew before. Sunflowers are ‘heliotropic’. Literally, they are sun benders. Every day, their stems turn so that the face of the flower is always turned toward the sun in the sky. They actually follow the sun from dawn to dusk, and during the night, they slowly turn back East to face the morning horizon! This may be common knowledge to many of you, but I was humbled and amazed at the behavior of these simple flowers, these sun benders.

Here was the lesson for me that day… maybe it will encourage you. I was made to follow the Son. Yes, Son not sun. With simplicity, faithfulness, and at times not a lot of fan-fare, I am designed to follow the Son, wherever He goes. When the world screams for my attention, when the headlines wear down my optimism, when I see my own inadequacies and am tempted to lose heart, I am called to face the Son. With a faithful simplicity, I am called to turn my face toward the source of life. I am called to anticipate His arrival, follow His presence, stay focused on Him. I needed that lesson that day.

How about you? Do you need that reminder? You are made to be a Son bender. You were created to deliberately and faithfully keep your face turned toward the One who offers you life. I don’t know what your challenges are today. But, let’s take a lesson from a funny yellow flower. Face the Son.

Cheering for you today,

Scott