Birds, Flowers, Eating, Drinking, Putting on Clothes
Jesus goes back to the basics. Don't worry about it.
There’s really nothing much to add today for these words from Jesus. No complicated theology, no necessary explanation of context. This is basic humanity as reminded by the son of the Creator God.
Birds, flowers, eating, drinking, putting on clothes.
These things are basic, but that does not make them unimportant. Indeed, Jesus is saying that they are essentially wonderful and accessible to all. We might expect the king to explain such things with some incredible, ground-breaking wisdom. But Jesus is “just” giving encouragement like a loving parent or an elder with the sageness that comes from plainly knowing life.
Read slowly if you want. But read with deep & wonderful breaths, remembering that his spirit continues to give your body life.
Matthew 6:25-34
“Therefore, I say to you, don’t worry about your life, what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, or about your body, what you’ll wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds in the sky. They don’t sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth much more than they are? Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? Notice how the lilies in the field grow. They don’t wear themselves out with work, and they don’t spin cloth. But I say to you that even Solomon in all of his splendor wasn’t dressed like one of these. If God dresses grass in the field so beautifully, even though it’s alive today and tomorrow it’s thrown into the furnace, won’t God do much more for you, you people of weak faith? Therefore, don’t worry and say, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’ Gentiles long for all these things. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Instead, desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Prayer
God,
We awake with many thoughts on our minds: responsibilities, appointments, yesterday’s things unfinished, family situations, and much more. But we want to begin with thoughts of your peace. For with your lens fixed on the eyes of our hearts, all of these things can be seen in healthy and appropriate ways. So we ask that you would direct our eyes, set our minds, orientate our hearts. Make us to view today with Kingdom vision. Keep us mindful of the right things, but with a trust that you’ve got this. You’ve got this day and so we offer ourselves to you, to serve within the scope of your will.
By your Spirit and in Christ,
Amen.