Looking For The Same Old Thing

Most people don't know that my favorite flower is a sunflower. I just absolutely love to see them standing tall reaching for the sky.  They are simply beautiful, and when I find one, it just warms my heart.

Each morning, as I have been out on my walk I have been disappointed at one house in particular, where for the past 2 years they have had beautiful sunflowers out front.  I have been looking for weeks, to find none.  Tonight as I walked past the house, I looked at the garage, and there lining the driveway were a few sunflowers standing tall, about  40 ft from the end of the sidewalk.  If only I had looked more closely, I may have seen them before tonight.  Then, on the other side of the garage, at the back of the property were at least another 20 sunflowers reaching for the sky.  How beautiful.  Because I had only looked for the flowers at the front of the house, I totally missed the beauty of the gift to my heart that stood tall farther back, farther from my field of view.

How many times do we look for the same old thing, in the same old place disappointed that it isn't there? How many times do we expect God to work in the same old way, disappointed when he doesn't?  We think we know how he is going to work because that is how he has worked in the past.  But our God is a creative God, he loves to do new things.  He loves to surprise us with more of himself.  We need to stop looking for God to do things in the same old way. We need to start expecting him to show up when we least expect it. He desires to bless his kids, so we shouldn't be surprised when he does, grateful, but not surprised.

"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."  Isaiah 43:19

After I discovered the sunflowers at that one house, I found 3 more houses along my way and the last house, just around the corner from home had sunflowers both out front, and in the backyard peaking up over the fence. What a blessed day it was indeed!