I gasped.
Mouth open, I stared at the text in disbelief.
What uncanny timing.
All the way from home, my neighbor in Singapore, completely unaware that it was my final day in Africa, sent me a photo of our flower bed in the community garden below our block.
There in full bloom, abandoned and unafraid, was the sunflower my girls had planted as a seed just before I’d left.
Back then, we weren’t sure if anything would grow, we weren’t sure if all our efforts might coming to nothing.
At once, I had goosebumps.
This was no coincidence, but God’s divine timing-
- and His way of reminding us, showing us, that what we had sown in tears as a family, we now reaped with joy.
- His way of showing us, that when we are faithful to cultivate, He is faithful to bring the harvest.
Through the timely blossoming of our sunflower, God showed our entire family, His glorious fruit from our sacrifice, His visible glory from our invisible, inward growth.
Beloved, when your seeds of faith feel suffocated by soil and manure, know that therein lies a flowering of extravagant hope.
Give yourself time. Give Him time.
Beloved, if you’re struggling to lay something dear to you down to God, remember this-
What we sow in tears, out of obedience to Him, we will surely reap with manifold joy.
