LILIES OF THE FIELD

Sunday, mid morning, and we are taking Chiefy to the park. Inside my own head is where I am, and I feel guilty.

There are many troubles I allow myself to think about, soaking up precious time instead of participating.

It was a few days ago that I asked the Lord to show me something that would take me back to being the person of faith I used to be. Years ago, even when I had so many troubles, no money or job, nothing but difficulties, I was always thanking the Lord for each day that He provided for us, and I was always reading His Word and praying.

He wouldn’t answer me right away because that’s how God is. Sometimes He makes us wait it out and He gives us time to think upon things ourselves. Then when we least expect it, the answer is in something that He created for us to meditate on. If we understand God’s nature, we know to dig deeper and there will be more answers waiting for us in His Word.

On the way to the park, we are winding around the narrow street, the curbs edged with graceful lilies, their tall stems stretching toward the clouds, and their orange faces proudly glistening in the sun. We agree that they are just beautiful, and marvel at how they seed themselves each year. That’s how they spread along the sides of the roads and into the fields (into the fields, lilies into the fields, lilies of the fields.)

Thank you, Lord.

“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?

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.

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.”