It is a joy to raise the blinds in the morning and peek out of the window, to see beautiful birds enjoying a black oil sunflower seed breakfast on one of our bird feeders. It is a wonderfully peaceful past time to watch the bird traffic in the yard. The bird activity is a direct result of us trying to be diligent to keep the feeders filled for our feathered friends.

The hindrance to having full bird feeders, is due to the exploding population of fox squirrels residing in our oak trees. These antagonists also love dining on sunflower seeds and through their concerted efforts, can empty a feeder in an afternoon.

Squirrels will also heist the seeds and hide them or bury them in various locations throughout the yard. Thankfully, the squirrels are forgetful and fortunately for us, some of those hidden seeds become sources of great surprise and truly delight us.

If the soil the seed is buried in for the squirrel’s epicurean delight at a later date, is rich and fertile, we may be blessed with a beautiful sunflower that sprouts and blooms in Spring.

It is impossible to look at this beautiful flower without recalling Matthew 13:23, where the Lord Jesus says, “But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.”

That one little sunflower seed, dropped into that fertile soil produces a lovely flower, filled with innumerable seeds, each of which is also filled with its own potential for beauty.

We, as God’s children, who have heard His truth, believed it and understood it, will in turn live a life that prayerfully, speaks to others of the the love and goodness of God. By His mercy and grace, we will see others come to trust Him because of our loving witness. Then, as with the sunflower, the multiplication begins.

May we tend to the garden soil of our lives and prepare it with the reading of His Word, with prayer and worship and fellowship and bear much fruit for the sake of the Kingdom.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV)

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