The Secret Joy of Sunflowers

Now more than ever, a truly valuable secret of the sunflower teaches us: live prepared for the Son’s return.

Sunflowers prove rather an enigma for me. While florists and grocery stores peddle a smaller variety, most I encounter exceed my petite five-foot frame. Blue, red and green ribbons adorn the largest sunflower heads at the local fairs: some as large as two feet in diameter! But until recently the secret joy of sunflowers escaped my notice.

At times monotonous, the daily commute offers little in the way of inspiration. Though this summer the unexpected greets me even from the midst of parched wheat fields. Yielding another glorious surprise on a recent commute, farm fields astounded me with acre upon acre of sunflowers.

Photo Credit: Agnieszka Ciszynska Photography

As vehicles sped by riveted on their destination, two miles of smiling sunflowers captured my gaze, slowed my pace and invited me into their secret.

Acres upon acres of sunflowers filled my sight in every direction, seemingly unnoticed by passersby, but undiminished in their joyful existence.

Stopping my car for a better view, I leaned on the guard rail surveying the expansive field, utterly astonished at the uniformity of the flowers. Unlike fields of wildflowers or even cultivated blooms, every sunflower stood tall, flower heads facing east, a well-ordered regiment of golden beauty.

I later determined due to the heavy pesticide usage in our area, a steep decline of pollinator bees required creative intervention, resulting in the sunflower fields.

Intrigued, my busy mind began a foray into the science of sunflowers in search of the secret joy of sunflowers from the Creator’s perspective. Anything but disappointed, uncovering these fun facts infused such awe into my soul, I stopped yet another day on my way home, pausing in worship.

The sunflower illustrates divine design in its own unique way:

• Budding sunflowers move in solar synchronicity: following the sun from east to west every day, returning overnight to an eastward posture.

  • A scientific experiment out of the University of California, Davis grew fields of sunflowers in enclosed warehouses lighted with electric lights 24 hrs. each day. The sunflower plants still moved east to west tracking the sun even though they could not physically see it. Scientists concluded this behavior was embedded in the plant’s DNA.

• Sunflowers require six to eight hours of sun every day.

• Mature sunflowers remain facing east until the end of their life. This posture warms the blooms facilitating easier pollination, while also making the plant more visible.

• Sunflower seeds follow the Fibonacci sequence arranged in an intricate spiral at the center of the flower head.

• The outer edge of the spiral seed center hosts more than 2000 individual flowers against the petals of the plant. The bright yellow petals draw pollinators to the tiny flowers.

• The entire sunflower plant is edible from the root to the petals. In addition to food usage, the sunflower provides over twenty-five different medicinal benefits.

One fact intrigued me more than the others: the sunflower’s propensity to follow the sun from east to west, returning its eastward posture during the night, prepared for the new day and finally remaining in an eastward posture once mature for the rest of its life.

Even under artificial lighting, it knows where the sun begins and where it ends.

God set the sun following the east to west pattern from the beginning of creation and uses this significance, teaching us an important truth. Look for the Son from the East. The wise men saw Christ’s Star in the east, followed it and found Him. (Matthew 2:1-2)

Jesus personally warned His disciples of false prophets in the end times deceiving the people of His Coming. But He reminded them He would come from the East. (Matthew 24:25-27)

In one of the most beautiful psalms, David penned a glorious metaphor in Psalm 19:4-6, likening the sun’s rising to that of a Bridegroom emerging. This prophetic utterance reminds us, fix our eyes on the East, for from thence comes our Bridegroom.

Now more than ever, a truly valuable secret of the sunflower teaches us: live prepared for the Son’s return.

The more time I spend in nature, even simple times in my backyard garden, the more God reveals His woven identity in creation. From the myriad blades of grass under my bare feet producing the air I breathe through a complex process of photosynthesis, to the regal sunflowers eagerly postured eastward; all speaks His name.

Scanning the field of gold, my eyes loathe the ending of the visual feast, remaining transfixed, because now I see it. The secret joy of sunflowers arrayed before me: a weaving of Christ. All things created by Him, for Him and through Him. (Colossians 1:16)

And me, created by Him, for Him and through Him, I, too, interwoven into the tapestry of Christ. The sunflowers, wondrously whisper, “Our joy, your joy; by Him, for Him, through Him: created, woven, one for His pleasure.” Behold, look to the East, for our Bridegroom cometh.

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