I turned the corner onto our street and braced myself. I had to talk rebuilding plans with our contractor, but just the thought of seeing that empty lot\u2013where my family\u2019s house had burned to the ground seven months earlier\u2013made me feel sick.<\/p>\n
That night still haunted me. Waking up to the blaring of smoke alarms. Bolting out of bed with my husband, Keith, and grabbing our two young daughters from their rooms. Huddling outside in our pajamas, shivering, before seeking refuge with a neighbor.<\/p>\n
We lost everything but the clothes on our backs and a jumble of items a friend salvaged from the rubble. I knew I should be grateful my family had escaped unharmed. But I couldn\u2019t help wondering why God left us nothing to start over with but dirt\u2026.<\/p>\n
Sunflowers? <\/em>I stopped the car and rubbed my eyes in disbelief. Instead of a bare dirt lot, there was a field of cheerful yellow sunflowers\u2013hundreds of them\u2013growing exactly where our house once stood.<\/p>\n We\u2019d never grown sunflowers. None of our neighbors did, either. The contractor said they\u2019d started springing up in our lot\u2013and only ours\u2013over the past few weeks. I stared at the vibrant flowers. Surely they were a sign from God, a promise: Life will blossom here again.<\/em><\/p>\n I snapped some photos and showed them to Keith.<\/p>\n \u201cSorry to burst your bubble,\u201d he said, \u201cbut there\u2019s a perfectly logical explanation. I had a baggie of sunflower seeds in the garage. The bulldozer razing our house probably plowed them into the dirt.\u201d<\/p>\n So much for God\u2019s promise.<\/p>\n The contractor finished our new house, and we moved in. Our lives really did blossom again. Still, weeks passed before I could bring myself to sort through the box of things recovered by our friend.<\/p>\n Keith and I dragged the box over by the trash can and tossed out one charred item after another. I felt like crying. Then Keith gasped.<\/p>\n \u201cBarb, look at this,\u201d he said. He held up the baggie of sunflower seeds he\u2019d kept in the garage\u2013still tightly sealed, with all the seeds inside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I turned the corner onto our street and braced myself. I had to talk rebuilding plans with our contractor, but just the thought of seeing that empty lot\u2013where my family\u2019s house had burned to the ground seven months earlier\u2013made me feel sick. That night still haunted me. Waking up to the blaring of smoke alarms. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"","timeOption":"","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":""},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[150],"tags":[62,51,72,80],"ppma_author":[2023],"class_list":["post-15753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gods-grace","tag-blessings","tag-inspirational-stories","tag-stories-of-faith","tag-stories-of-hope"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n