When I moved into the condo I live in now, my parents gave me a welcome home gift: a Keurig coffee maker and a card adorned with sunflowers. Little did I know just how much I would come to utilize the coffee and tea machine, working from home...or just how symbolic the sunflower card would be.
Upon moving into this condo, my life would (unbeknownst to me) explode with abundance. I would get a promotion, and then another, at the Center I work for. I would begin to (unbeknownst to me) start a small guppy farm. Restoration in relationships with friends and family members (again, not to my knowledge) would take place. I would adopt a wonderful little pup (who knew)! I would facilitate a community group and get more involved in my church community. NOT JUST MY OWN, but my siblings lives, would begin to explode in wonderful ways, all around. My younger brother and his fiancé bought their first condo and decided to marry one another. My older bro's wife, my sis-in-law, achieved her lifelong dream of becoming a tenured professor at Stanford, with his incredible support. My nephew is blooming and discovering his preferences and interests. This amount of abundance is something I have dubbed "seeing the goodness of God in the land of the living." This shift is a season we have been waiting for. It is explosive, full, and undeniable, and a shift we have all been awaiting for. It's exuberance cannot be hidden, kind of like the sunflower.
The sunflower has been symbolic throughout:
Not just the card my mother gifted to me, but...the theme of a good friend's wedding festivities.
Not just her wedding decorations, also the marigold of the gowns we wore as her bridesmaids. Not just the golden hued gowns, but the name of the guppy who birthed half the fry in the tank.
Not just the fry, but the middle name of my wonderful, life filled puppy---because it was fitting.
Not just Waffles, but the prophetic painting gifted from a good friend as I returned to CA after grad school.
Not just the painting, but the words of good friends from two and a half years before, naming said return to California "would usher in goodness."
According to soulsgreenhouse.com, the sunflower "symbolizes faith and adoration for all that is, the true faith and loyalty to something that is much bigger and brighter than themselves... The sunflower is a symbol of God's love. It relates to self-respect, which means being authentic and embracing your own individuality."
Some seasons one cannot see coming, and yet something undeniably shifts. Suddenly, undeniably, one finds themselves standing before the goodness of God, arms stretched to the sky, openly receiving the Sun. Abundantly blooming, shooting out beams of radiant gold.
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