For you MJ and your family, sunflowers from heaven.
The journey you have traveled with your sister, Donna May, has been a long one. You were only able to accompany her and be a witness to her journey over the last four years as she underwent treatment for breast cancer, went into remission, had the cancer spread, to her final days in the hospice. You have been on a journey as well. To lose a sister is to lose a person who has shared your life, who knows the best and the worst of you and who loves you regardless. To lose a sister before old-age is to leave you floundering in a sea of life that becomes larger and lonelier.
As Donna May's favorite flower was sunflowers and the journey you and your family is one you walk alone, remembering the sunflower as one of God's most powerful symbols of our lives may bring you some comfort. We may walk alone, but our path is never without the loving arms of God's abundant love embracing us every step of the way.
In memory of Donna May, remember the sunflower and how amazing it is:
Sunflowers turn toward the sunlight, always searching to get the rays that give them life.
Sunflowers have powerful stems that carry the weight of their fruit and allow them to twist and turn towards the light without breaking.
Sunflowers come in the brilliant colours of the sun - bright yellows, burning oranges and vibrant reds - symbols of the life-giving light they turn to.
Sunflowers grow to bear an incredible bounty of seeds that burst out from their pods and mature as the waning days of summer begin.
Sunflowers provide nourishment for birds who pick up those seeds and spread them around populating the world with a garden of sunshine.
Sunflower seeds sit in the soil until the warmth of spring arrives and they push up to reveal their newness of life, slowly revealing their beauty day by day.
Sunflowers burst to life surrounded by whatever the landscape provides adding to the beauty of what they have been given.
To MJ and your family, may the comfort of the sunflower's promise bring you peace knowing that your sunflower has nourished you all with the seeds of her life and she will continue to spread as you drop those seeds to bring beauty to God's landscape. She has embraced the light and let her spirit fall into the eternal loving arms of God, bringing her sunshine to all of you as you walk the lonely path of grief. She is there with God's loving arms surrounding you with love and light to lead you out of the darkness.
