Joy A. Mead

This week, England experienced a heat wave and I have loved seeing our happy sunflowers delighting in the continuous sunshine! Having grown them from mere seeds in an egg carton, it’s so encouraging to see them shining out their joyful presence in our garden.

With some of the dead flower heads removed, I have been drying them out to save the seeds for the next season. Having a chance to observe up close each sunflower head, I am amazed at the hundreds of new seeds on just one flower. I think we could nearly have a sunflower farm if we decided to plant them all!

Taking the time to remove so many seeds has made me reflect upon how incredible it is that these beautiful, cheerful plants each came from one seed. Over days and months, they had been watered and looked after, growing steadily and now proudly ready to shine.

Isn’t that such a good reminder of how God grows us? We are as tiny seeds and after consistent time journeying with Jesus, we are ready to shine for Him and are then filled with seeds of His goodness that the Holy Spirit helps us spread to others.

I am reminded of Jesus feeding the five thousand people from the book of John, chapter 6. In verse 8, the boy brings his meagre lunch as a offering to Jesus, allowing Him to bless and multiply the food to feed and nourish the massive crowd. From something so small and seemingly insignificant, God blessed and made the lunch a blessing to everyone who came that day.

A sunflower seed may also, in itself, seem of small value, but once it has germinated, grown, and bloomed, it is something spectacular to see. May we let God grow us similarly like the sunflower: steady in scripture, tall in prayer, strong in faith, full of life through the Holy Spirit, rooted in Jesus . And over our lifetimes, may we be spreading our seeds of God’s love to all we encounter.