Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these

 "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?  So why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

- Matthew 6:25-34

We are currently reading through the Sermon on the Mount.  On Saturday, we read that Jesus taught: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  The lamp of the body is the eye.  If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!  No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon."

 "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?  So why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'"  What Jesus says here notably follows the admonition that one cannot serve God and mammon (in yesterday's reading, above).  He begins to speak about the material aspects of life, a focus on anxiety that is more than simply thoughtful planning.  Life is more than food and body more than clothing.   My study bible says that our physical well-being is directly dependent on God, and only indirectly on food, drink, and clothing.  Moreover, excessive anxiety over these things demonstrates a lack of faith in God's care.  It's important to put this into the perspective of His preaching about what we worship, what we put first.  He is speaking of a kind of worry in which these are the things which concern and consume us most, more than the greater blessing of having God as our Father.

"For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things."  My study bible explains that because the Gentiles served pagan idols, they remained consumed by dependence on earthly things.  Those who follow God can be freed from this total dependence, as we can trust that our heavenly Father knows that we need all these things.  Jesus is not negating the need; He is rather asking us to keep in mind the love of God for us, and God's awareness of all our needs.  It is this mindfulness on our part that creates a holistic balance in our lives.

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."  My study bible points out that the kingdom of God is the central theme of Jesus' teaching, and that God's righteousness is the true focus of the Sermon on the Mount.  His primary admonition is that we seek first the kingdom of God and God's righteousness, and that all the things we need will be added to this.  Therefore, this is our primary focus as His followers.  My study bible says that, calling us to be free from anxiety about earthly things, Jesus directs us to look to heaven, secure in the faith that God will provide needed earthly blessings.   That sufficient for the day is its own trouble is one of the wisest sayings that experience will teach us.  We do not need to drum up more troubles by needless anxiety!  Tomorrow will bring its own set of worries; there is no need to think up more.  Today -- and the things which present themselves immediately before us -- is enough for today.

In the central photo at the top of my blog, one will find one of the most beautiful (to my mind) flowering plants that grow quite commonly in the region where I live.  These are crocosmia lilies.  They grow so easily and abundantly that some consider them an invasive species.  Their beauty and color remind me of Christ's "glory" of the lilies of the field, as indeed these display in their ruddy gold brilliance.  Somehow by accident, my camera at the time of the photo captured the white of the sun's rays shining down on them and nurturing their beauty, highly appropriate for our passage today.  These rays are likened to God's mercy -- the energies of God that truly sustain life for us all, including the great beauty of the flowers that remind us of resurrection, especially the bulbs that rest in the ground to re-bloom each year.  The beauty of their colors, nurtured in the sunlight, give us delight through their glory.  And so it is that we are free to enjoy the beauty of the God-given world, as that very beauty also nourishes us and provides us with something we need.  When we observe the beauties of the created world, we may pause to consider how deep our need for beauty is, for beauty -- something hard to define as a material necessity for bodily survival -- is indeed something that nurtures the soul.  It is a reminder of God's love for us and God's care, for we may ask why it is that so much of created nature bursts with such beauty as if to give us an uplifting gift, a break from toil, a time of enjoyment or delight.  Jesus calls lilies such as these the "grass of the field," reminding us also of their simplicity == and yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed such as these. Indeed it remains difficult to replicate through man-made objects the brilliance and dimensional richness of these colors in the sunlight.  In the most ancient burial sites discovered by archaeologists, we find evidence of such types of flowers buried with the ancient dead -- truly a teaching of our need for beauty and the reflective promise of resurrection of life our earliest ancestors intuitively grasped for.  Our own need for beauty teaches us about our dependence upon God for the finer things in life, the things that nourish the soul, give us the most heart, and the true faith in life's very goodness that sustains us and makes life more than toil.  Worry and anxiety, Jesus seems to teach us, take us away from that truth of life, and even from who we truly are as the children of a loving Father in heaven.  Excessive worry keeps us stuck in the "what ifs" == all those things that too often distract us from what is right in front of us and what is important, taking away our spirit for the real work we need, even the work of faith, of prayer, and of trust.   We need to remind ourselves that our health does depend on taking the time to appreciate the beauty we're given, telling ourselves that our focus is on what's needful, and not the fears that take us away from good health in every sense.  It's a common theme that so often we feel we can solve problems simply by worrying about them, when so often it is patience that is necessary to await a solution -- and time to contemplate the better and beautiful things that gives us a refreshed mind more able to cope with whatever the troubles of today really are.  Let us remember our need for beauty, and our Father in heaven who knows what all our needs are, and take heart in what is good, without giving in today to what rightfully belongs only to tomorrow.