Sunflowers, Seasons, and Storms

Did you know August 1 is national sunflower day? I didn’t, but it made me smile, and seemed like a great time to share some thoughts from earlier this summer! 

“What is there to do at a sunflower festival…”

Trying to hide the confusion, my friend looked at me, head tilted sideways. 

“Honestly, no clue. But there’s fields and fields of sunflowers, so that can only be a good thing in my world” was my quick reply. It was met with a laugh, but the question stayed with me all day.

I now had a new mission: to figure out what, in fact, there really is to do at a sunflower festival.

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A few hours later I arrived to pick up my friend who came up with this side quest. She arranged this outing for us; at this point I was just there to fulfill my new mission. While I waited in her driveway to head out, a thought crossed my mind. 

“Give me 10 cool facts about sunflowers” was the prompt I typed into my phone. As a former educator, I love learning; and I knew if nothing else I could randomly start spewing facts out if the heat was drying up any laughs later in the day. 

As I briefly skimmed sunflower facts, something I didn’t know captured my attention: heliotropism. 

Heliotropism is the directional growth or movement of a plant in response to the Sun's position in the sky. The term comes from the Greek words helios (Sun) and tropos (turn). 

Specifically, young sunflowers are known for this: before flowering, young sunflower buds face east in the morning and follow the Sun westward during the day. At night, they gradually turn back to the east, ready for sunrise. Once the flower matures, it usually remains facing east rather than continuing to track the Sun.

So, sunflowers kinda float with the wind (or the sun) before they flower. Interesting. 

Ever feel like you’re just following the sun, just for it to set and for you to turn around and do it again? Meanwhile, you’re watching everyone else mature and bloom. 

I know I have. 

As I have continued studying this, I have come to understand that there are a few different types of heliotropism (unofficially.) 

Positive heliotropism: The plant or its leaves/flowers turn toward the Sun to maximize sunlight. This helps increase photosynthesis and can keep flowers warmer, which may attract pollinators.

So really, this tracking with the sun is leading to their maturity. In fact, it's generally an adaptation that helps the plant survive. 

Somewhere in those sunflower fields, within my racing mind, I was reminded of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8: 

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

For every season…

Heliotropism kinda sounds like the preparing seasons, to me. Those times where we feel like we are running in circles, waiting, sleeping, and running in the same circles again. They feel pointless and intentional, all at the same time. Faith is tested, exhaustion is felt, and tears or anger probably surfaces. The storms of life are hard, so how do we make it though? 

God promises these seasons have purpose. 

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4 ESV) 

Did you know, a fully mature sunflower can endure storms of 30-40mph winds with minimal damage? Sunflowers are also resilient: if a sunflower is bent but not broken, it may partially straighten over several days, especially if gently staked. The word in James for ‘steadfastness’ translates literally from the Greek to ‘endurance’- just what sunflowers need to withstand storms. 

Did you catch that part about resiliency? If supported, bent sunflowers usually revive after a particularly rough storm. Who is your support after particularly rough storms? 

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

John 15:4-6 (ESV) reminds me of the support. Sunflowers certainly do not survive the storm because of the flower, but rather the strength of the stalk the flower rests in. In other plants, the branches are just an extension of how strong the vine is- and Jesus is the One and only vine for a truly abundant, mature, beautiful life. 

I hope next time you see a sunflower, you think of it a little differently. Remember they can withstand so much; and in Christ you can too for His glory. 

If you get the chance, go to a sunflower festival. I bet my friend didn’t have any idea the path their question sent me down…but what a beautiful lesson from a beautiful, strong flower.

God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.

You are so loved!