Years ago, I turned a bunch of clean used glass jars into vases because I thought they would be great craft fair merchandise. If we ever got to do in-person anything again...
I was pretty depressed back in 2020 and 2021. Life seemed so bleak and hopeless. My glow-in-the-dark vases helped me find reasons to smile and keep creating.
When it finally was safe to have an in-person craft fair again, I attempted to sell my vases at a local one-day, three-hour Christmas craft fair. No luck at all. Craft fairs don't seem to be a thing anymore. (Markets might work, but I couldn't afford to buy a booth, and back then, I couldn't leave Lizard alone long enough to participate. I didn't plan to try one out and drag him along to be more miserable than he already was in his late-stage Parkinson's battle.)
I didn't want to try selling the vases on Etsy because I didn't want to chance their fracturability in the mail. So, my big box of mosaic vases has been covered all this time to prevent gathering dust. The pillow case covering the vase, however, gathered plenty of sneeze-worthy fine debris and soot, especially with all the wildfire smoke in our air now every summer.
Suddenly last week, I had to opportunity to put a few of my vases to good use. Really good use.
I'd been studying Esther all week, repeatedly reading the scriptures, watching every Esther podcast I could find, searching every kid-themed Esther activity, game and object lesson I could find. It was my turn to teach the 7-year-olds, and Esther has always been my favorite Old Testament story. I wanted to teach the kids something they might remember, something that might possibly help them throughout their lives.
One of the podcasts I watched highlighted how many Biblical scholars throughout history have thought Esther should not be included in the Bible because the book doesn't contain the name of God anywhere. Yet, His fingerprints are throughout the book. Luck didn't get Esther into queenhood. Happenstance didn't put Mordecai in the right place at the right time to save the king's life. Chance wasn't how the king remembered what Mordecai did on the very eve before Haman planned to request Mordecai's execution. And just why would anyone fast, especially back then, when the health benefits of fasting were unknown? Who were the Jews and Esther and her servants petitioning as they fasted? And Who gave Esther the courage to approach the king without invitation?
That podcast suggested the author of the Book of Esther may have intentionally not named God to encourage and train readers to look for God in places we don't expect to find Him, especially in our lives. He compared looking for God to looking for sunflowers. The host said he finds sunflowers along the highway, in wide expanses of fields and even in his own backyard, even though he had never planted them.
I will never look at a sunflower the same way. I have loved sunflowers since the first time I saw a field of mammoth sunflowers. I wasn't crazy about sunflowers before that. When sunflowers began growing wild in my garden, I was initially annoyed because they were in areas I didn't want them. But then, as the mercury climbed like a peakbagger on a quest to reach the highest point in every mountain range, I realized sunflowers don't need to be watered. They keep growing and they keep pointing at the sun, no matter the weather. They can even topple in a windstorm, and they still bloom and try their best to face the sun. While lying flat on the ground!
I promptly cut nearly a dozen of this year's wild sunflowers, which I allowed to thrive to remind me to look for the light each day. Or, the Light. Which I am trying very intently to do. (I'm sorry I forgot to take photos of the actual cut sunflowers throughout this activity.)
I put each sunflower in one of my vases with glow-in-the-dark mosaics (because I love reminding the kids to look for the Light of the World by giving them glow-in-the-dark lesson surprises), and at church the next day, I hid the vases all around the shady side of the church prior to class.
Two kids volunteered to "teach" the lesson because, they said, they already knew the story of Esther. I let them, because, you know... leadership skills. They needed help, but they did pretty darned good. I was very proud of them for the details they did remember. (Mordecai is a really hard name for a kid to remember unless they already know someone by that name. And who in the heck can pronounce the name of the king?!?)
The kids then went on their treasure hunt to find the sunflowers and vases. Even the boys were excited to claim their own vases to take home. (One said he would give the sunflower to his mom, but the vase was his.) This Sunday, while we were studying Job, the kids told me all the places they were noticing sunflowers. I reminded them that means that God is everywhere in their lives, too.
I learned to love Esther because of her courage in approaching the king. I learned to love sunflowers because one of my students many, many years ago asked me to take her senior portraits in the first sunflower field I'd ever seen. I learned to trust sunflowers to grow in my garden, regardless of how hot and dry it gets (and even where they grow). And I'm still learning, every single day, to keep trying to look for the Light. Even when everything seems dark.
