A Tale of Sunflower

Many people regard rose as a flower that symbolizes love. Yes, I do regard rose as one of the most romantic flower too. Yet still sunflower attracts me the most. And this is the story of the brightest flower you'll ever seen on this earth...

Some people say that love finds its happiness when it becomes mutual sharing of the two sides. Yet I wonder how could I find the strength to endure it one-side only?

It started with one gaze. He is so bright and tall. He has huge responsibility to take care of all the living things of this earth. When he sleeps, the earth cries. The light has gone, the darkness comes. Yet as the time passes, he will rise again to lighten every heart who embraces him in the morning until the slumber time comes again. I will always smile when he rises up and take my position to ... simply stare at him.

Sometimes I wonder, will he ever notice? Will he ever care? Yet I chose to keep gazing at him all day. I wish I will keep growing taller so that I can get closer and closer to him. Yes ... I definately grow much taller among other kind of flowers, yet we are still so much far apart from one another... #deep sigh.

There are times when I feel tired. His shine is so bright til it melts my body. There are moments when I am tempted to turn my body away from him. Just a moment ... to take a momentary cool breeze air. Yet my heart never stops whispering, "Stay." And I chose to follow my heart no matter what. So here I am ... still staring at him.

Some say that love is not about demanding, it is about giving and giving and giving. So is my love not real when I demand his response? Is there something wrong in my love for him? Will I still love him when he does not love me back? Will I stay when he turns away?

Yes ... I was wrong. I suppose not to use him to fill my selfish needs. I should not demand him to care for me only and neglect other living things that need him as well. So I chose to do my part and stop wishing his response. I wait on him day by day to rise up and ... stare at him tirelessly ... faithfully.

Now my head has grown bigger and heavier. My head bows down for I carry a lot of seeds waiting to be poured out. I cannot lift up my head as I used to do everyday to stare at him. It grieves me a lot. Yet I still try to turn my body towards him. Hey sun, don't worry. I am still here ... waiting for you.

As the time goes by, I cannot hold my head any longer. I guess it is time ... to die. The seeds on my head start to fall on the ground. There are hundreds of them! As I watch them being poured out ... I see a ray of hope. Hey ... this seeds will surely grow to become like me! Yes I will die, but there are hundreds more sunflowers who will continue waiting and staring at the sun. I am relieved.

Then... the sunflower withered and died. Yet new hundreds of sunflower are on the way to replace her position. There the story goes over and over again. Faithfulness has no end.

The sunflower realizes that happiness does not come only when love comes from both sides. She makes her own happiness by loving her sun no matter what and without demanding anything in return. A love that is so pure, so selfless ... If a sunflower can be faithful to its sun, why can't we be faithful to our soulmate?

Yet this is not the end of the story. Although the sunflower thinks that she is the one who loves and her sun does not notice her, the truth is ... the sun loves her too ... deeply, immensely, intentionally, faithfully. The sun loves her in the way that she does not understand. The sun loves her secretly by giving his sunshine to be the strength of the sunflower to grow. As the sunflower grows nearer to him, so does the sun draws nearer to her. Yet the sun realizes that there is still a distance need to be kept. For it will burn out the sunflower if they are getting too close. It hurts the sun to keep a distance with his loved ones, yet he has to. He denies himself and prioritize his beloved's life more than his love. The sun values the sunflower so much ... and this is just the way he loves her. The sun is faithful and kind. And their love actualy meets as they keep being faithful and staring to each other.

We are the sunflowers. God is the sun. There are many times we feel we are not loved, we are abandoned, we are alone. Yet God is always there. He loves us in a way that we don't always understand. But the truth is ... God is always by our sides. He is always ready to lift you up at the darkest moment in your life. And our part is ... simply stare at him. Love him. Imitate him. The sunflower reflects the sun by her appearance. Her bright yellow color and lovely shape simply reflects her loved ones. So does as we stare at God every moment in our lives, soon we are going to become like him. Yes we do have a distance physically with God. We are human, He is God. Yet our love meets in the heart. It grows in the ground of trust and commitment.
Commitment takes a decision to make and faithfulness to carry it on. And faithfulness has no end.

So, will you be my sunflower? -God-