The sunflower has become a symbol of hope and resistance as the conflicts between Ukraine and Russia continue to become more desperate.
The sunflower is also the national flower of Ukraine. Recently I saw a FB post from an artist asking all artists to post their paintings of sunflowers. I shared this painting entitled, My Sister, My Friend. The words below were written by the prophet Isaiah, somewhere around 740 BC in the 40th chapter of the OT book of Isaiah and I feel they are relevant:
“All people are like grass and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.7 The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”
21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
22 HE sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers.
HE stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
23 HE brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
24 No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground,
than HE blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
And the most marvelous, poetic words of this chapter~
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
These are dark and troubling days. We thought we were smarter than that – that those dark days of war were behind us. God has warned us there will be “wars and rumors of wars” But He is still in charge, still on His throne. Find comfort in these words and pray for our brothers and sisters in peril around the earth.
Prayers and Paintbrushes 