Story Of The Three Sunflowers

          Now today I am going to share with you a true but probably very insignificant story that has happened to us this summer.  Maybe it should be a parable, or maybe there is a moral to the story, or at least there may be some practical application.  But if there is, I still haven't figured out what it might be.  Maybe you can provide it for me.

         Early this spring we were shopping at a local nursery store and while we were checking out, we saw packets of sunflower seeds.  Now we've never tried to grow sunflowers before but we thought that they might make a great addition to our flower garden.  So we purchased a pack and began the process.

         The packet contained about 20 seeds and so we planted them in a box and made a small "hot house" for them to help them germinate.  Soon about 12 actually geminated.  As they grew we decided to transplant them into individual cups to give them more space to grow.  Unfortunately, only three of the twelve actually grew large enough to be transplanted into our garden.  So from about 20 we ended up with just three.

          Now I was concerned that our rabbits might enjoy sunflowers just like they have enjoyed many of our other young plants.  So I came up with an idea to make three circular fences about 30 inches high and a foot in diameter.  I was proud of my work and we went ahead, transplanted the three, and enclosed them in my inventions.  And actually it worked and the three plants began to grow.

         Then as we watched them grow, their growth reminded me of the story of the three bears - Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear.   Does that children's story have a moral?  Maybe it would be the same one as this story.

         Papa Sunflower began to grow - taller and taller.  It eventually stood strong and firm, about 8 ft. in height. It towered over everything in our garden. I thought that maybe it was going to be Jack's beanstalk. And alas, it finally produced - two sunflowers! Please note, in all fairness to Papa, it now has a few more buds and may still produce another flower or two if the Fall doesn't get it first.

         Then there was Mama Sunflower who quickly grew to about five feet tall.  And she was actually the first to produce a flower - a pretty, but rather small sunflower.  But alas, the Japanese Beetles got after it and it never developed fully before dying.  But she wasn't done and she eventually produced about five more flowers.

          Then there was little Baby Sunflower.  It struggled to grow, although a late spurt finally made it about four feet tall.  And guess what?  Baby Sunflower outdid the "parents" by producing about 12 beautiful yellow flowers.  It was the star of the show.

          Now as I was watching them grow I couldn't help but think of the Biblical parable of the talents.  Does that fit here?   I really don't know. Or how about the woman who quietly gave her all in the offering when others showed up but actually gave so little of their large funds?  I'm not sure. Could the lesson be that some folks who appear to be "big" in the eyes of others really don't produce much spiritual fruit while some lesser folks, behind the scenes, are much more fruitful?  Again, I don't have any idea but there must be a lesson there to be learned.

          I do know, however, that I can't wait until next Spring to start this process and challenge once again. I may need to build some more rabbit proof cages.   Oh, by the way, did you know that the seeds of a sunflower are actually in a Fibonacci sequence?  That is one of the amazing facts about God's creation and maybe that is one of the many reasons that I love sunflowers.

POSTSCRIPT

         Just before this blog was published things changed dramatically.  Poor Mama Sunflower seemed to shrink and her flowers began to dry up.  Maybe a case of old age "osteoporosis"? I don't know.  Poor Baby Sunflower became over zealous and produced so many flowers that his stalk couldn't handle it and he doubled over.  In doing so his stalk broke and his top flowers all quickly dried up.  And it was too late for my attempted "spinal fusion" on him.   But the real surprise was Papa Sunflower with his tall strong stalk.  Suddenly he broke out with a surprisingly large number of beautiful sunflowers.   He bore beautiful fruit in his old age.  I guess us old guys hope that will be our experience as we continue to age.

          Now I have no idea what the parable or lesson of this whole sunflower growing experience may actually be.  And I don't intend to spend too much time trying to find it.  Instead I'll just enjoy the beautiful flowers that remain.

Baby

Papa

Mama