Life Lessons from the Sunflower Field

If you have been following along here, you know that my summer was a challenging one for me. It was honestly downright hard. At the same time, I keep reminding myself that hard is not the same thing as bad. It WAS hard, but there was also a lot of growth and maturity and I learned a lot along the way. There were also beautiful moments and wonderful memories made, so I am learning to acknowledge the hard while also seeing all the good and the beautiful.

One of the most beautiful parts of my summer was growing a sunflower field. This is my second time successfully getting a small sunflower field to grow, but the story behind this years sunflower patch goes a bit deeper and is significantly meaningful to me!

Let’s go back to Spring…the month of May, to be exact. May was a good month, packed full of some great things…but it was SO HARD. It was the month that Theo quit his policing job and stepped into the role of executive director of our school. It was the month that the calendar was packed with all the things for the kids, and all the extra things for me as a teacher. It was a month of transition and somehow we also managed to squeeze in a stomach bug AND two out of states trips to two different funerals. And in the middle of May, I convinced Theo that I NEEDED to get the sunflower field planted. So one afternoon, we planted around 4000 sunflower seeds in 7 neat rows. I was filled with so much hope.

The days fell into weeks and summer wasn’t going as I had planned. I couldn’t seem to find any time in the margins and at the end of each day I would be struck with guilt and remorse that I hadn’t been able to go out to the sunflower field and weed. I had meant to put down cardboard to keep the weeds at bay, but a month had gone by and the weeds were already pretty out of control. Then one night a storm rolled through. Theo went outside to check on the animals and then started yelling for me to come out to help him. A flash flood tore through our property and nearly drowned all of our animals. It completely submerged my sunflower field (which had just started to sprout). Thankfully, our house wasn’t touched and we didn’t lose any animals during the flood.

I kind of lost hope, though. That flood took away my last bit of hope that my sunflower field would be successful this year. I completely gave up on it. I would occasionally walk out to the field and check to see if anything was growing, but more often than not, I left the field in tears because all I could see were the weeds choking out the sunflowers. I knew just spending 20-30 minutes a day battling the weeds would eventually end in success for my sunflowers, but no matter how I tried to order my days, I could not seem to make that happen.

It was a particularly difficult weekend in late July. I was out mowing, absolutely overwhelmed with caring for our property. I was going as fast as I could, thinking about what I needed to make for dinner and how many other things were falling off my plate that I just couldn’t seem to handle. I looked over at the weedy overgrowth and gasped.

A BLOOM.

A SUNFLOWER BLOOM.

I stopped the mower and jumped off, running over to the field. As I peered closer, I could see more blooms! I absolutely couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that anything had grown up out of that complete and total mess.

It reminded me of the verse in 1 Corinthians 3:6 – “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but it is God who made it grow.”

And, honestly? Isn’t that just the story of us? We plant and we try to weed and maintain beauty and functionality, but so often we fail. So often we put forth our best efforts, but it’s not enough. So often we can’t put forth our best efforts, and we “fail” by the worlds standards.

And yet.

Blooms.

Growth.

Maturity.

God helps us grow. Despite the mess. Despite the weeds.

I really wanted my sunflower field to be more like the parable of the sower- with a perfect patch of ground that allows the plants to grow beautifully. But instead, my sunflower field was a reminder to me of 1 Corinthians 3- believers who were struggling in their maturity and who needed more than their own effort. Verse 7 says “So he who plants and he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.”

Praise the Lord that even in our messes, He helps us grow.