Sunflower Mini Sessions: Growing Through Uncertainty
As I sit here with my coffee on one of the first rainy days of the summer, I can’t help but be overwhelmed with gratitude for all the growth and provisions God has sustained me with this season of my life. This year has been unlike anything I have ever experienced before. From rescheduling ALOT of weddings, to Easter tornados, significant improvement in my physical health, small business taxes, the pandemic, getting furloughed from my day job, more taxes, finding a part-time temporary job, getting tested for covid (I was negative thankfully!), diving head-first into sustainable gardening and finally getting my old job back, it’s been a wild ride to say the least!
With all the uncertainty and tensions, I found gardening to be a safe haven and a form of mental health therapy. Since I had so much more time on my hands under the circumstances, Salvador and I decided to go ALL out with it! (We are even taking online workshop classes and watching documentaries on organic gardening! Learn more here.) This season we grew a variety of veggies, fruits, herbs and sunflowers all organically and non-GMO from the ground up. (We got our seeds here.) We built raised garden beds, hand plowed our own rows, started composting food waste and truly fell in love with the life found in the soil. Ever since I was a little girl, I have always loved flowers, plants, wildlife and especially bees and the relationship they all have to sustain our planet.
At the very beginning of 2020, I prayed about what words, themes and Bible verses would represent the things I need to focus on this year. Before I knew that any of these trials were to take place this year, these were my words:
SOW, PRUNE, REAP, HARVEST, FEAST, ABIDE.
John 15 has been the main theme of my year:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed youso that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
I share all that because I have learned how important it is to abide in Christ. To be close to Him. To trust Him. To let God the Father be the master gardener to tends to us so that we will produce a harvest in our lives so that we will bloom and thrive in any circumstance. As a new gardener, I have experienced these Biblical metaphors first hand as I care for my plants. I have seen how resilient they are and also how they need to be maintained to thrive. How much more will God do that in our lives if we let Him? What a comforting promise during this season of political unrest, division, uncertainty and economic strain.
The biggest highlight of all of this was the hundreds of sunflowers that bloomed on my property! From brilliant reds, yellows, golds and everything in between, I knew I had to share the beauty with my friends! For the first time ever, Salvador and I opened our sunflower patch to the community to enjoy for photo sessions. We had an amazing turn out! We plan to make it bigger and better each year! Did I mention in the fall we will also have a pumpkin patch! Stay tuned for that as well.
Please enjoy some highlights of the photo sessions from this year’s sunflower patch! I pray that you too bloom and thrive in whatever circumstances you are in and know that God, our master gardener, loves you!
