Thursday, November 17, 2011

A Quick Botanical Lesson!


Have you ever wondered how it is that sunflowers are able to face the sun as it moves across the sky throughout the day? I mean, I'm pretty sure that they don't have brains or a nervous system to coordinate that movement. What actually happens is the leaves that are in the shade produce a growth hormone called auxin, which travels down the shady side of the stem stimulating cellular division. This unequal cellular division effectively rotates the stem, leaves, and flower so that it is always directly facing the sun. Whoa. Props to God on that.

This amazing botanical concept can transcend to our lives as Christians, as well. We all have pasts; most are full of faults like selfishness, hate, greed, prejudice, and iniquity. Check me down for all of those. But the thing is, those dark parts of our lives help us to understand just how much we need the Light:  Jesus. God allows us to make these mistakes because He gave us free will to either love Him or hate Him; after all, forcing us to love Him wouldn't be real love in the first place. When we choose to satisfy ourselves by succumbing to our own carnal desires, we are doing the opposite of what God intended for us to do: to constantly be facing the Light that is our life-source. A sunflower that turns away from the sun will not receive the proper amount of nutrition it needs in order to survive, and it will surely die. However, God gave us the Holy Spirit to act as our auxin. The Holy Spirit allows us to reflect upon our dark past and understand that the Light of the World is the only thing worth facing, stimulating growth in our faith. Friends, if you were a sunflower, which way would you be facing?

With love.

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