Sunflowers and Grace

Who doesn’t love sunflowers? Their bright yellow and deep orange petals instantly bring a smile to my face.

Last week, a friend and I visited a sunflower field — which has been on my bucket-list for a LONG time — and included in our ticket was a free sunflower.

An older woman with a stern smile handed us a pair of shears and reminded us it was just one flower per person.

After having an amazing time weaving — or as some of the pictures might suggest, jumping — through the fields, we hunkered down and honed in on each flower, making sure we picked the best ones.

And then all of a sudden my friend goes, “Um…I don’t have the shears. Do you?”

A new hunt began, this time a bit more stressful. After scanning every row and retracing every footstep, we determined that the shears were missing. We practiced what to say, when to offer to pay for a new pair, wishing we had somehow brought an extra pair of shears with us.

The woman at the stand was waiting when we were finally ready. I expected a lecture, or at the very least an expectation that we’d go back and search some more or pay for what we had lost.

But instead, as my friend explained what happened, the woman’s face softened and she replied, “Oh, don’t worry. They always find lost shears during their night runs.” And she even trusted us with a new pair so that we could claim our precious sunflowers, which now had even more value to us. (In case you were wondering, we didn’t lose the extra pair of shears 🙂 )

This interaction reminded me of what it can be like to approach God after we’ve done something wrong.

It’s so tempting to avoid talking to Him because we’re afraid of His anger or expectations. But God wants to hear from us, and we are often most vulnerable when we admit our mistakes.

In fact, we miss out on many blessings when we don’t come to Him. Just as my friend and I wouldn’t have been able to bring home our beautiful flowers without that woman’s grace, we also miss out on beautiful opportunities when we don’t ask for God’s grace. And God’s grace is limitless.

I also know we never would’ve gone back to that farm if we hadn’t admitted that we lost the shears. The memory of an otherwise fantastic day would’ve been tainted with regret and shame. Our conscience — or rather, the Holy Spirit — is there to help us create a life that’s beautiful to remember, even the hard parts or the times when we mess up.

Going to God with everything on our hearts allows us to have a deeper relationship with Him. We are most able to receive His gifts of mercy, forgiveness, and understanding when we are off our soapboxes and on our knees in prayer, truly needing what only God has to offer.

Growing in our relationship with God is the biggest blessing of all. I hope today, no matter what’s on your heart, you’ll go to God with it all. His grace will meet all your needs.

But [God] said to me,“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:8-10 (NIV)