Sunflower Symbolism

I love sunflowers. Each year, I plant a few and wait all summer for them to grow and flower and show their happy faces. My first sunflower of this year bloomed right before Hurricane Irene hit us. I hoped that my flower would make it through the storm. It did! However, it is now severely bent over. The day after the storm, my younger son remarked that it "looked like the hunchback of Notre Dame!"

Here it is, a week later, and that stalk has produced several more blooms, all trying to turn their faces toward the sun.

And so it is with us. We get beaten down by the storms of life. At times, we may be barely able to stand (both figuratively and literally), but we can still bloom and bring beauty to the world. We can still turn our faces toward God and rest in his light and grace.