My goodness, I think I could sit and stare at a single
sunflower bobbing its head in a field all day long with a smile on my face.
They are by far one of my favorite flowers. To some they are merely glorified
weeds, but to me they are magnificent.
It isn’t their beauty that captures me, but rather their
resilience and persistence. They grow in the most desolate and harsh of
locations—on the sides of the road and in dusty, weed-strewn fields. They can grow
in masses in bountiful fields but aren’t afraid to pop up fearlessly as a solo
entity in the middle of an abandoned dirt plot. And no matter the conditions,
whether being whipped by passing cars or being choked out by dry and barren
soil, sunflowers always turn their heads to face the sunlight above with a
confidence and optimism that I can’t help but admire.
It should come as no surprise then that I chose to
incorporate sunflowers into my wedding bouquet last year. When I think about
what it takes to build and maintain relationships….whether it be with friends,
family or your spouse….I think of all the same qualities that I see when I look
at sunflowers. You have to be persistent, resilient, hopeful and always be
looking upwards in faith to the source of everything we have and need in this
life. And with all the bumps and twists in the road that Andy and I have
overcome so far, it only seemed appropriate to include sunflowers into our
special day. Though I’m quite sure I’m the only one who knew why.
Ever since our wedding, however, I find myself needing
reminders of what sunflowers represent to me….not just about surviving love and
relationships….but about surviving life as a whole.
In the past few weeks I have bowed my head in dismal prayer
on more than one occasion for the sake of several friends who are presently suffering
serious and life-threatening ailments. I don’t believe there is a single person
on earth who deserves to suffer the things they are dealing with, but it always
seems like it’s the very best of us who are struck down by the greatest
hardships. As strong as my faith in God is, these are the kinds of moments when
I find myself stumbling the most.
The times we are living in—filled with the suffering of so
many—are difficult times indeed. I often find myself not wanting to get out of
bed and start another day because it seems as though nothing good lies ahead. I
am overwhelmed by the suffering of those around me, particularly those I am
close to. I feel useless when it comes to helping them and feel that offering
up supportive words is superficial and does little to improve their circumstances.
The truth is, there is little most of us can do for people
suffering physical illness—both in our lives and around the world. We have to
trust a lot of that work to doctors and medicine. About the only beneficial
thing we can do—for ourselves and those suffering around us—is to be like
sunflowers.
We have to be resilient and not let grief and fear overcome
us. We have to be persistent in our fight alongside our friends and family and
let them know that we will never give up on them. We have to be hopeful that
healing and peace will eventually come. We have to fight the urge to flee or
shrivel up from the burden of being caregivers or supporters but instead keep
our faces turned towards the light---be that hope, determination or faith in
God.
In the neighborhood I recently moved into, several new homes
are still under construction and a few dirt lots still patiently await buyers.
With the summer heat and rains, weeds have begun sprouting up all over the
place. I hate their ugly appearance and the depth to which their roots so
quickly dive. And I’ve spent a good deal of my summer pulling and hacking away
at the weeds in my yard to get rid of them. But a few weeks ago while I was
tackling some more weeds in the back yard, I glanced over to my neighbor’s
yard. As bad as our yard is, his has become a veritable jungle of spiky green masses.
But there in the middle of all the ugliness, was a single sunflower stalk
rising up above the weeds. And it made me smile.
Like I said earlier, sunflowers themselves are considered by
many to be just another weed. But there’s a brightly colored bloom on the end
of them that suggests otherwise. They suggest that there is more than meets the
eye and that something beautiful can be harvested from anywhere, no matter how
dismal.
As the weeks have gone on, I’ve noticed more and more
sunflowers sprouting up on other lots around us. I like to think that they’ll
encourage people to look past the weeds and see the potential beyond
them---they’ll see the future home for their family. But regardless, they are
daily reminders for me of my need to stay strong and hopeful even in the midst
of so much pain and sickness. Being a sunflower won’t cure my friends of their
illness but it will help me stay and fight beside them. And it might even
encourage them to become sunflowers themselves. And sunflowers, it seems, are
entirely unwilling to ever give up or give in. They choose only to see the
light and all of its promises before them.
