The Gift...

I happened to spend some time last week driving through a city cemetery.  I don't visit cemeteries often but I was trying to teach a friend how to drive and it seemed the perfect place.  As we slowly wound our way around the grounds, I started to read the various headstones, noticing that many were very old.  I remembered reading a few months back how within 75 years of our passing, there most likely won't be a single person left who remembers us.  Wow, I thought, 75 years isn't even that long.  To think that a life can come and go so quickly, only to then be forgotten so quickly is rather shocking and perhaps even disheartening.   How can our lives, that seem to stretch out endlessly before us, suddenly come to an end and be forgotten so quickly?   A verse I memorized a long time ago came to mind...  

1 Peter 2:24-25  “People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field.
The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever.”

On Christmas today, I watched as my kids opened all of their gifts, big smiles on their faces.  New memories were made that I hope they will carry with them into adulthood.  

A large box sat on our toybox for me...a gift the girls had made for me over the past month.  As I eagerly tore into it, a beautiful warm blanket that they had crocheted lay inside.  Any gift is special when you know that the giver had you in mind...but there is definitely something extra special about a handmade item.  There is an extra element of sacrifice, knowing it took a great deal of time to gather all of the supplies and make it.  

As I look back on this past month leading up to Christmas, I think about all the ways God has comforted me, encouraged me, and touched my life, preparing my heart to receive His most precious Gift.  

His Gift is free to everyone, yet cost Him everything.

His Gift is priceless and endures forever

His Gift is His own Son, Jesus.  

When I think of the lengths He went for me, I realize how deeply He loves me and how precious each day is that He gives me.  I take so many things for granted, over and over again.  I take so many of my days for granted, not appreciating all that He has given me.  When I come to the end of it all, I hope I can look back and say that I spent my days meaningfully and lived with a purpose, driven by the Gift God has given me.  I hope I can say that I cherished that Gift, every day.  Every one of us has an opportunity to know God and accept or reject His gift.  I pray that you will take hold of the Gift of Jesus, and in finding Him, you will find a greater joy than you have ever known before.  

Contentment...

 I read a very thought provoking poem last week, written by a 14 year old.  It reads like this...

It was spring but it was summer I wanted;
the warm days and the great outdoors.

It was summer but it was fall I wanted;
the colorful leaves and the cool dry air.

It was fall but it was winter I wanted;
the beautiful snow and the joy of the holiday season.

It was now winter but it was spring I wanted;
the warmth and the blossoming of nature.

I was a child but it was adulthood I wanted;
the freedom and the respect.

I was twenty but it was thirty I wanted;
to be mature and more sophisticated.

I was middle-aged but it was twenty I wanted;
the youth and the free spirit.

I was retired but it was middle age that I wanted;
the presence of mind without limitations.

My life was over but I never got what I wanted.

As I found myself feeling inundated by my kids requests and demands and just the constant mess and noise in my house this week, I was reminded to STOP wishing away the place I am in right now and find things to appreciate, even in the chaos.  As I found myself longing for family members to be present for the holidays who are no longer with me, I was reminded to cherish the many wonderful memories I do have and to focus on making new ones with my family now.  We can truly always find something to complain about, but it takes a lot more resolve to thank God for what we have today and have hope in what He has in store for us tomorrow.  As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, I hope we can all take some time to reflect on what we can be thankful for, even in the midst of the most difficult days.

God Doesn't Give You the Ticket Until It's Time to Get on the Train...

I ran across this photo of sweet Lawson last night from 2016...and it brought to mind a quote I remember from Corrie Ten Boom's "The Hiding Place."

"God doesn't give you the ticket, until it's time to get on the train" was a line from the movie. And the meaning behind this is that God will supply the strength you need—just in time...

Today is my mom's 78th birthday. When she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease over 9 years ago, it was in the midst of one of the darkest times of my life. My brother had just passed away and I vividly remember a conversation I had with my aunt, telling her that I could not bear losing my mom as well, that it was absolutely impossible for me to accept that future for her.

And yet, here I still am, 9 years later....not because of my own strength to endure, but solely because God has supplied for all of my needs, just as He said He would.

It has been far from easy. My mom has not known me for over 5 years now. She is asleep almost all the time these days...

Last night I read 2 Corinthians 1:8-12 (NLT) and the passage spoke to my heart in a powerful way...

"We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through...

We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure,

and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die.

But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God,

who raises the dead. And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again.

We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us..."

It hit me that only in these places of deepest suffering do we sometimes recognize our desperate need for God...we finally stop relying on ourselves and learn to rely ONLY on God.

And so while my heart is indeed very heavy today, I felt like God wanted me to share this message. He will supply for our needs, just in time. His timing is always perfect. And while it will often be very difficult, we can have CONFIDENCE in Him and know that He will continue to rescue us.

I Won't Waste it....I Promise!

 Our family took a trip last week to Bedford, PA.  It was a beautiful crazy-warm day for November, 80 degrees and sunny.  On the way we passed near the Flight 93 Memorial, which I have been wanted to visit for years.  So we took a little detour and stopped to walk through the site where the plane had crashed that fateful day, over 23 years ago.  

I remember that day all too well as my brother was living in New York City at the time and could see the twin towers out of his dorm room window.  I remember the events unfolding as I sat, glued to a television in horror...for hours

Walking through the memorial museum, there were photos and videos, recordings from that day, and several letters that people had written that day to thank the passengers for their courageous act, which saved so many other lives.  One such letter brought me to tears.  Someone who was staying in a hotel right next to the Pentagon on September 11th had written it.  He expressed how he certainly could have lost his life, had Flight 93 not been diverted.  At the end of the letter he said that the way he saw it, the passengers had given up their lives so that he could keep his. He ended by saying, "I won't waste it.  I promise."

How many of us live our lives with a sense of purpose?  Or do we allow our circumstances to carry us through our days and hardly even stop to think why we are here or what purpose our lives might serve?  Since seeing that letter at the Memorial, I have been very contemplative.  It has been a very exhausting few weeks for me as all of the kids have been sick again.  Life has just felt hard.  Driving past an electronic marquee the other day along a busy road I often travel, I found myself asking God to give me a word, a bit of encouragement to keep pressing on.  And immediately this verse appeared on the marquee, 

Psalm 85:12

The Lord will indeed give what is GOOD.

Just like the letter I read that affected me so profoundly last week, I have a choice daily to see my life as one that has been saved, redeemed.  I have been rescued from my own demise.  Jesus Himself came to save me, and to give me a second chance at life.  I did nothing to deserve this, but He offers this gift to me all the same, if I will only believe.  How often to I forget the sacrifices He made, for me?  How often do I appreciate all of the GOOD that God has poured into my life, and choose only to focus on the bad?

I have a choice, to not waste my life, to make it count for something more, something greater than just the here and now.  A price has been paid, my punishment was cancelled out, and I now have HOPE.

Today I read Psalm 68:10 which says, 

"What a Glorious God.  

He gives us SALVATION over and over, 

then daily He carries our burdens!"

He not only forgives us, but He cares about our day to day needs.  Daily...He carries our burdens.  Daily, He longs for us to be in close communication with Him.  

I read the life purpose statement of Jonathan Edwards this morning and it touched my heart deeply:

RESOLVED, never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I can.

RESOLVED, to live with all my might while I do live.

RESOLVED, never to do anything I should despise or think meanly of in another.

RESOLVED, never to do anything out of revenge.

RESOLVED, never to do anything that I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.

A great price has been been paid for my life.  God I recognize this today.  Help me, help me, help me not to forget it.  There is so much ahead to be joyful about.  Let me not take a single day for granted.  My life is so precious.  I won't waste it.  I Promise!

Have You Thanked God Lately?

Last weekend, the kids thought it would be fun to cut down a tree in our front yard.  Now let me preface this by telling you that we had been talking about removing this tree for quite some time because it had begun to grow over our driveway and front windows.  We told the kids we would wait until most of the leaves fell of in the fall to cut it down.  Derrick also told them that he wanted to do something with the wood, birch, as it was expensive hardwood.  

The older kids chopped/sawed down the main trunk of the tree and the younger kids worked hard to cut all the smaller branches off of the large trunk pieces.  And then, Lawson got an idea.  He gathered up some small branches, found one square flat board in our garage, and declared that he was going to build his own mini table.  He cute the branches into legs and shaved and smoothed the outside of each let piece.

Yesterday, Lawson worked together with Derrick to turn his table into a chair.  They shaved and sculpted and sanded and whittled and finally, a small wooden chair was unveiled.  As I watched Derrick working with Lawson, spending hours on a project that meant nothing to him but everything to Lawson, this verse came to mind:

1 John 3:1
 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!

God LAVISHES His love on us - pours it out for us constantly, even when we don't deserve it.  When I stop to think about all that He does for me and has done for me, even sending His own Son to die for me, I am beyond humbled.  

So my question to you today is this - have you thanked God lately?  Have you acknowledged the things He has done for you and taken the time to express gratitude to Him.  His love for you is deeper than the ocean, more vast than the highest mountain peaks.  He cares so much for you and I, even when we are not deserving of anything.  He pours into our lives every day, and so often we hardly even give Him a second thought.  Will you give yourself some quiet time, before the day is through, to talk to Him, to thank Him, to recognize that even while we were completely undeserving, He gave it all for us...

Romans 5:8 

 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: 

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Up Close

 A couple of weeks ago we had the rare opportunity to see a Northern Flicker up close.  Carter had gone out to the garden in the morning to pick a few hot peppers and his eyes caught movement in a section of the net surrounding the garden.  He walked over and discovered the flicker, tangled in the net.  After a few minutes, the flicker was free and we all joined him outside to admire the beautiful creature.

From far away, the flicker may just appear to be a grayish brown color, nothing too exciting, but from close up you can truly appreciate the beauty of this bird, the black bib and cheek markings, black spots on his belly and back, the red patch on the back of his head and then, as an afterthought, the brilliant yellow feathers under his tail.  Several of the kids took a turn, carefully holding him and then we watched him fly away to freedom.

This would have been just another ordinary Saturday morning, but we were given a glimpse into a world that is often only visible from a distance.  And when we took the time to stop what we were doing, let our other duties fall by the wayside for a few brief minutes, we were rewarded with something truly beautiful, something that brought a smile to the face of every member of our family, something they will not forget anytime soon.

I think of how I order most of my days, allowing myself to get pulled from one obligation to the next, filling every second of my time with tasks both large and small.  I think of the relationship that God offers to me, if I will only allow time to step away from all of they busyness and just be still before Him.  The Message version of Psalm 46:10 reads this way:

“Step out of the traffic! Take a long,
loving look at me, your High God,"

Will I allow myself the opportunity to witness God, up close, to let the things of this earth fade away for a few minutes each day so that I can see Him, experience all that He has to offer me, be dazzled by His majesty and glory.  

Thank you, God, for this new day, to experience the amazing world You have created for us to enjoy.  And thank you for desiring a close relationship with us, even when we push You away time and time again.  Forgive us for focusing on temporary things and help us to have eyes to see You and to see what is truly important in this life.  In Jesus Name, Amen.

Relentless Pursuit

Psalm 23: 6  Surely Your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life...

For the last two months, I've been up to my neck in soccer.  Five out of six of the kids are playing and it is a daily commitment of practices and games...and constant laundry to keep all the uniforms clean and ready!  I enjoy seeing the kids out on the field, pushing themselves physically and doing something they all love.  When I watch the kids play, I see them focused so intensely on where the ball is on the field. No matter what is happening around them, their primary aim is to keep the ball away from their goal and to put it in the goal of the opposing team.  In order to do this, they must constantly chase it around the field...relentlessly...

As I parent, I sometimes feel a bit like a soccer player, only I am chasing kids around.  Often they evade me, or shoot off in another direction.  Often I am weary of chasing, hoping they will make good decisions, be kind to each other, have a servant's attitude towards others, do their chores, put their phones away, or maybe just brush their teeth...  Often they test me, reject my gentle guidance, roll their eyes and even walk away...

A few weeks back as I was standing at the kitchen sink washing dishes, I watched the kids running around the backyard together and a thought occurred to me.  How often do I treat God the same way they treat me?  How often do I reject His gentle voice, turn away when He is trying to speak to my heart, choose my own path instead of His, and spend an entire day without even talking to Him or listening to Him one time?  How does this make Him feel?  And yet, He never grows weary of pursuing me...His pursuit is relentless.  He offers me so much more that I could ever deserve.

Romans 5:8  But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Even in the midst of my disobedience and stubborn heart, God reaches down to offer me grace, love and forgiveness and a relationship with Him.  He pursues me, never gives up on me.  He cares about me with an unimaginable love.  He is wholly focused on me.  I fail Him again and again and again, and yet He is always waiting, hoping I will turn back.  While I can become worn down and discouraged when my kids reject my love, God never does.  He will never stop seeking me out...never give up on me...

Ezekiel 34:11  For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.

As I continue to watch the kids finish up their soccer seasons, and as I strive to parent them well, daily, I will keep these verses in mind. 

Lamentations 3:22-23  The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning

Psalm 139:7-8

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in the depths, you are there!

Have you stopped to consider recently how God might be pursuing You?  Can you even imagine a love that, even while He hung, dying, on the cross, cried out, "Father forgive them..."?  How will you respond?

Feeling Small

 As Eva held up her finger with a monarch caterpillar perched on top, the thought crossed my mind, "what must that feel like for the caterpillar?"...to be so small and helpless, totally at the mercy of a much larger creature.  That very same day in the kids' science lesson we read about our solar system and about the known universe....how it would take 40 years just to travel by our fastest spacecraft to get to the edge of our solar system.  (or 19 million years if you could travel by car!)  It would take humans 76,000 years to travel to the next closest star, Proxima Centuri.  The Milky Way galaxy contains at least 100 billion stars.  The number of galaxies in the universe is estimated to be between 100 billion and 2 trillion.  Do you feel small yet???  I feel a lot smaller than that caterpillar for sure!

But all of these things do cause me to question, why am I here?  How did a planet like earth come to be situated so perfectly from the sun, be the exact size and temperature an be tilted and rotating as well?  

This week I read this verse from Romans 1:19-23 (MSG) and it really touched my heart:

But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is!  By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can't see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn't treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.

Everywhere I look there is evidence of the fingerprints of God on my life.  And yet, I turn to foolish things far too often when I should be turning to Him.  When I stop to consider how infinitesimally small I am in the vast unknown universe, my breath catches in my throat.  And yet, in spite of how small I am, I know that God know me and loves me and cares about me!

So much of the universe is yet unknown, just as so much about God is a mystery to us. But this does not diminish the grandeur of the universe in nay way, nor does it diminish Who God is.  I can live with myself as the center of the universe, or I can see myself as the speck that I am in the midst of the epic expanse of the created world and humbly acknowledge that I know so little, but what I do know is powerful and life changing.  God made me, God has a plan for me, God has a reason for placing me here right now, and God wants me to follow Him.

God, I know nothing and You know everything, and yet I try to take the reigns and steer my way through life far too often.  Forgive me, remind me of who I am and WHO You are. Help me to trust You with my very life, which is what I must do when I think about the delicate balance of all that You created here to sustain life as we know it.  Thank You for caring SO much, to design such an amazing world, so perfectly suited for me to live in.

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

 I was witness to a "war" this morning.  It was totally unexpected, yet it was the kind of war you would want to see...a hummingbird war.  As I stood at my kitchen in the early morning sunlight, I looked outside through the windows to see three tiny hummingbirds, zipping and zooming in hot pursuit of one another.  Just when one would make it to a feeder to feed, another would swoop in to chase it away.  It was both adorable and dizzying to watch them.  Their tiny chirps were like music to my ears.  Little by little they gave each other turns sipping nectar at the feeders.  It was a feeding frenzy and I realized that these tiny creatures were most likely preparing for their long journey back south for winter.  

It is almost unbelievable to think something so small and fragile can migrate over 2,000 miles every year in each direction.  It is hard to believe that they often choose to migrate across the Gulf of Mexico which is an 18-22 hour flight non-stop.  How do they know where they need to go...even in the dark of night?  And it is crazier to think that they can remember the places where they fed this year and return to those exact spots the following season.  

When I think of a trip like that, I often feel sad for these creatures.  Why were they tasked with such an epic journey every year, along with so many others?  And yet, they don't seem to mind it.  It is an instinct ingrained in them by their Creator...seeking the light and warmth of summer all year round.

Last week I found myself stuck in bad traffic in one of Pittsburgh's many tunnels.  I am not particularly fond of tunnels and even less fond of being stuck in traffic in them.  As I inched my way through the tunnel, I could not help but yearn for the fresh air and light at the other end.  And as I finally emerged, the full city skyline awaited me in all it's splendor.

Life can often feel like that journey or that tunnel...endless and difficult.  At times it even feels like we will never see the other side.  I find myself in that tunnel all too often...but there is hope.  

Just like that tiny hummingbird, fragile, infinitesimal in comparison with the huge world spinning around it...there is an order and a purpose to things that cannot be denied.  There is always a light at the end of the tunnel, and I have found that light in God.  

Psalm 36:9  

For you are the fountain of life, 

the light by which we see.

John 1:5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

1 Peter 2:9 ...for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light

Micah 7:8  Though I fall I shall rise again.  Though I sit in darkness, 
the Lord will be my light.

Transformation

 A few weeks back, I took the kids to fish in a nearby lake.  We've had a very hot and dry summer here and the water level in the lake was lower than usual.  This must also have encouraged the growth of thousands of water lilies.  They grew so densely along the edges of the lake that the kids couldn't even cast out their lines in many places without snagging on the lily pads.

So instead, they got out their nets and got busy catching tadpoles.  In a matter of minutes they had caught about 20 large tadpoles, probably from large frogs or bullfrogs.  And of course, at the end of our visit to the lake they asked to bring them all home.  We have a lot of critters to care for in our house, 2 dogs, 2 cats, 1 bunny, many fish, and a dozen monarch caterpillars....and now...tadpoles!  But who can resist a good science lesson and a chance to witness one of God's miraculous transformations of tadpole to frog?

As the days passed several of the tadpoles began to grow legs and lose their tails and finally three of them were ready to be released.  As we were caring for these tadpoles, I encouraged my girls to take a tadpole from their fish tank and place it with these newly caught ones.  Now here is the interesting thing - they caught this tadpole last spring - and it never transformed!  I am not sure if I should be reaching out to someone in the scientific community to report this anomaly of nature.  Removed from the hardships of life - temperature variations, weather and predators, this tadpole was content to stay - just a tadpole!

I wonder, friends, if we too are not all too content to insulate ourselves as much as possible from the hard places in life and thereby miss out on opportunities for our lives and hearts to be transformed.  When I am pushed outside of my comfort zone, it is there that I grow.  Maybe God is challenging you right now...but as much as you want to resist change, ask Him to help you and to show you what it is that He might be trying to accomplish in your life.

Dear God, help us today to be open to whatever You might have for us to do and to walk bravely in it.  Transform our lives and our hearts so that we might die to our old selves and be transformed to be more like You.  In Jesus Name, Amen!

I Want That Fish...

 Last week I took the kids to an aquatic pet store to find a new fish.  It is always an adventure going there and trying to find the right fish when there are thousands to choose from. After going down every aisle and weighing every option, we had narrowed it down to two fish.  Needing some expert advice, I flagged down one of the employees to ask for their opinion on the fish my daughter wanted.  "Those need warm water, so you'll need a heater in your tank," the employee said.  My daughter who stubbornly insisted that the fish would be fine without a heater, even though I said I would buy one, insisted on that fish.  I urged and coaxed her to choose another that would deal better with the temperature of her tank.  Finally after much pouting and eye rolling we settled on a pretty neon-yellow tetra. She was not happy and wanted no part of it.  All the way home, she pouted.  Even after putting the fish in her tank she was not happy.  This fish was not what she wanted and she had no intention of showing appreciation for it.

This all seemed so silly to me and even a tad angering.  How could she not appreciate the time it took out of my day to drive her there and the expense of a new fish? Couldn't she at least see the good in that?  But as I stopped and thought it over more, I realized that I do this same thing all the time.

How often have I asked God for something that I wanted, only to get "no" for an answer.  How many times has He tried to tell me, "that's not the best choice, but this is better," and I want no part of it?  How many times has He saved me from a disastrous choice and I haven't even realized it?  How many prayers have I prayed that He answered in His way and His timing and I haven't even acknowledged it?

God, help us to see all that you do for us and how you so often protect and shield us from our bad decisions and selfish or foolish requests and give us something else instead.  Help us to be people who seek to know Your will, not just our own.  Help us to remember all that You did for us, even dying for us when we didn't deserve it and never to take this for granted!

Where Does My Help Come From?

 As I was driving cross-state on the Pennsylvania Turnpike last week, we traversed over many hills and small mountains.  A verse came to my mind, one that is very dear to my heart. 

Psalm 121:1-2 "I life my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord Who made Heaven and earth."

There is a certain majesty even attributable to smaller mountains. They have a force about them, a strength, a power. But this verse reminds me, among the many places we may turn for help, our help only ever truly comes from God.

I do find myself getting caught up in all the busy-ness of life too often, forgetting that it is God who truly sustains me.  God is more mighty, more powerful than any obstacle I encounter.  

When you take some time each day to slow down and really still your heart, you find that God is able to speak to you more clearly in that space.  For me, it is often through nature.  The symmetry and order and perfection I find in nature astonishes me every single day.  I find I can never become bored by it or ever see it all.  I am always seeing and learning new things, which then deepens my appreciation for nature even more.  Seeing the beauty of a pale yellow okra flower in our garden, not a plant you would expect to produce a beautiful flower, always catches my breath.  And seeing a tiny purple forget-me-not flower in the palm of my four-year-old Tessa reminds me that God does not even skimp on His efforts to create the tiniest flowers, which go unnoticed most of the time.  How much more does He care about me?  And the same holds true for God.  The more I see of Him, read His Word, spend time with Him, pray to Him, the more I want to know Him and be near to Him.  James 4:8 says, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." and I have certainly experienced this time and time again.

My help comes from the Lord Who...

...is almighty

...is all-knowing

...is ever-present

...is more powerful than the mighty ocean

...is a lamp for my feet and a light to my path

...loves unceasingly and unconditionally

...cares about every tear that I shed

...knows every hair on my head

...has made the heavens and the earth

...has knit me together in my mother's womb

...gives me exactly what I need in the measure I need it

...gives rest to my weary soul

...gave everything for me in His Son Jesus.

Wherever you may find yourself today, take a few minutes to get away from the demands, the to-do lists, the rush.  Step away and just be in the presence of almighty God.  Know that your hope and help comes from Him.  Listen to His voice.  Surrender your will and agenda.  Accept the help that He offers (not forcefully but out of love.)

I lift my eyes to You today, oh Lord.  Help me to live in Your presence, daily.  Help me to remember where my help comes from.  Amen.

Seeking the Son

 How much do you know about sunflowers?  They are really quite fascinating when you take some time to learn about them!  As I sat on my deck early this morning, I noticed how all of my sunflower plants were facing east.  Every day, the sunflower begins by facing east where the sun rises.  As the day progresses, the sunflower turns to face the sun as it travels across the sky, ending in the west at sunset.  Then, overnight, the sunflower turns back east, anticipating the sunrise the next morning.

Another fun fact about sunflowers is that the seeds are arranged in the Fibonacci sequence, to maximize the number of seeds in can pack into the head and optimize the chance of pollination.  The leaves too are arranged in a spiral pattern, maximizing their exposure to the sun.

The sunflower plant knows exactly what it needs to grow, and goes after it in every way it can!  There is no way to distract it from it's sole purpose of absorbing sunlight in the greatest quantity possible!

As I think about my faith in God, I am impressed by the tenacity of the sunflower.  What if I was as focused on seeking after Jesus as the sunflower is in seeking the sun?  What if I woke up every morning, looking for, waiting to experience closeness with Him.  What if my focus on Him did not waver as the day progressed and I kept Him in my sights at all times, as I interacted with others, took care of my children, made decision after decision.  And at the end of the day, when I lay down to rest, I would reset overnight, so that I would be ready to wake up the next day, walking with Him all over again.

The complexity and beauty and mathematical genius of the sunflower is just one of many examples in Creation of a masterful Creator Who cares about what He creates.  And I am told that He cares so much more about you and me...

Before the heat became too oppressive, I spent some time in the backyard, with Tessa helping, planting more sunflowers.  I hope as we watch them grow over the next few months, they can inspire us to seek the Son more passionately, to remember where our strength and hope and sustenance comes from.