Lilies and Sparrows

Praise the Lord for our church. Today I wondered into church particularly discouraged and cumbered with so many burdens. I sat down and listened to the songs and the prayer and then our pastor opened God's word for us. We discussed part of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus addresses the issue of worry. Our Lord used such wonderful word pictures in that passage. First he talks about the sparrows. Those little birds are tiny and fragile. Yet, those little birds do not wonder around in a tizzy wondering where their next meal will come from, they know that God provides for them. Why on earth do we humans have such a problem with trusting the Lord. I know I am very bad at this. I have a problems with holding on to those worries and stresses. Sometimes those stresses are real things and sometimes I "create" problems by imagining things that just are not real issues. Next Jesus talks about the lilies of the field. Pastor talked about how those lilies grow. He has some in his garden (the garden that he openly confessed to us that he never tends) and they grow regardless of how he does or does not tend them. They even had a scourge of grasshoppers this season that ate the lilies and yet those stubborn flowers returned once again. Our lives are much the same. We are flower beds full of weeds, we get stepped on, we go through dry patches, we have plagues of grasshoppers...yet God provides for us in such a way that we can continue to grow. Our Heavenly Father is such an amazing provider and care-taker...it makes me wonder why we ever worry, and yet we keep on doing it. May God help us to be better at trusting in his excellent care.