These tulips reaching for the light in my kitchen are such a powerful visual. At all costs, the yellow bulbs and their leaves are extending, twisting, and curving sideways in search of the light. What’s most fascinating about this image though is that the whole room is saturated in light. However, simply being in the light doesn’t seem to be this plant’s goal. The potted tulips are seeking the most direct and powerful light, they appear to be searching for the light source.
Oh, the endless power of creation’s testimony to help us see truth! Romans 1:20 declares: For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and the sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities —his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God (NLT).
The directional growth of a plant in response to sunlight is called heliotropism. Delmer Chilton carries this concept into the realms of faith as he explains, “God’s way is the way of heliotropism, transformation brought on by being bathed in the light of God’s love —daily turning our faces toward the source of life and love itself”.[1]
Just as my tulip’s stalks have maneuvered (where they are planted, I may add) to find their source of life, so we must pivot to seek our true source of life. When we move toward the light, Lumen Fidei – the Light of Faith, will lead us to encounter God’s powerful transformation and redemption.
As we walk through Holy Week, these tulips are an important reminder of the life-giving light Easter provides. Jesus, who the Scriptures declare to be the Light of the world, is the resurrected Savior we seek and can trust to guide us out of our darkness and into His grace-filled, mercy-giving, and love-saturated marvelous light.
[1] Chilton, Delmar. 2018. Living Lutheran. Lectionary blog: Growing toward the light of God. https://www.livinglutheran.org/2018/04/lectionary-blog-growing-toward-the-light-of-god/ (Accessed April 5, 2023)
