Yesterday, I purchased some potted flowers and transplanted them in our backyard. Among the purchase were a couple of sunflowers. Sunflowers are some of Jan’s favorites.

As I was transplanting one of the sunflowers, I noticed several small insects and a bee had landed on the sunflower in the middle of transition between the plastic pot and its new home. They literally landed on the sunflower while still mid-air and in my hand.

Some of you are in a transition like the sunflower. It may not be a physical transplantation. It might be a new way of thinking, a new relationship with someone, or a group of people you had not expected to connect with. The soil of a new relationship, job or ministry now surrounds the roots of your life. This new soil feels foreign and unfamiliar.

Like the sunflower you have been transplanted from a tight enclosure to a larger more expansive place where you will be able to grow in ways not possible in the tight and familiar container of your past. Unknown to you in the transition you will begin to release the pollenating presence of God for people who need the wisdom and faith you learned and exhibited in the transition. Even before you have fully been transplanted you will begin to help others grow stronger spiritually.

Try to imagine the effect you will have on the garden of your new destination. Yes, it was strange and uncomfortable to go through what you experienced but after the transplantation is complete, your spiritual root system will begin to expand into the territory of a new season of your life. It will be a territory you had not thought possible before you went through the uprooting and transplantation.